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Are there bacteria or other types of lifeforms that feed on rocks and other ground minerals? And if there aren't, is it technically possible? It can eat other things but the majority of its diet sh...
The question about a diet of dust brought up a few creatures that survive on dust, however they were all insect-sized or smaller. This got me thinking about the Blue Whale, which survives on a diet...
Could life survive on a diet of dust or some other substance that is both abundant and that we don't place any value on?
If the force of gravity at the Earth's surface suddenly became 2 times stronger, how would the environment and humans cope? I'm guessing a lot of flying creatures would suffer, but what would happe...
Here's a quick guide to changing the orbit of an asteroid: Figure out where it is. This is the crucial bit. You need to know its position, mass, velocity, orbit, size, density, and composition, a...
Imagine someone wanted to divert a specific asteroid to impact the earth. The Current Impact Risks page at nasa.gov shows a list of known impact risks based on observations. Most of these asteroi...
Suppose there is a planet where intelligent life (with intelligence approximately same as that of a being of the human species, say) exists. However, due to certain conditions (such as, for example...
First, the deadliness of a virus can vary widely from mostly harmless (Herpes) to very deadly (Ebola). However, note that even for Ebola, there are people who survive without treatment. Indeed, Ebo...
I would like to know what would happen if a new virus arose which could not be cured and which managed to escape the infected areas (and any quarantine zones). In order to scope this question I'm n...
If humans didn't exist, what species would populate the earth? Would an animal gain human-like intelligence if humans weren't here? What animal would gain dominance?
Here on Earth, the majority of weather-related events happen in a layer of the atmosphere known as the troposphere. It lies from Earth's surface to approximately $20 \text { km}$ - at its highest. ...
The idea of hollowing out asteroids, spinning them on their longest axis, and filling them with air, water, and soil is common in science fiction (Rendezvous with Rama, or 2312 for good examples). ...
If the gravity on earth was different, how would our bodies change? For this question, assume that gravity was five time stronger (5G) from the beginning of the Earth. Would a human-like body stil...
Assuming you have a map, I would first plot out all the different settlements. Towns, cities, villages, hamlets, outhouses - everything. Now connect them in straight lines. Completely straight. It ...
I suspect that they would lose any flying ability rather quickly. Here's why: If you own a cat, you probably have an emotional attachment to it. Perhaps that's a strong attachment. You'd be pretty...
One quite nasty type of bug (which can especially be hard to find, and can give quite inconsistent results) is out-of-range indices, in a language which doesn't range-check indices (likely to be us...
Yes and No Quantum mechanics is full of probability. You simply can't get around it. You can never know for sure if a particle at time $t$ in the future will be at point $A$ or point $B$. Quantum ...
Quantum physics today tells us that we may not predict outcomes with certainty. We perceive events as random. So is this old philosophical fantasy of an all knowing computer possible? Meaning that...
If a universe is a simulation, then, logically, it must have all the natural laws built into it. Agreed? Now, if it is a deterministic universe - that is a universe where, theoretically, you could ...
Let's assume, without revoking any of today's science, that the world is a simulation. What would a bug look like? I'm assuming that "the eiffel tower suddenly being bent at 45°" is rather unlik...
Given a map showing terrain and settlement locations (cities, towns, villages) I'd like to design a road network that appears natural, rather than just being the most efficient. I'm interested in t...
Let me add another point of view. Most answers assume that the large brain evolved in order to gain intelligence. However, I've once read another hypothesis (unfortunately I don't remember where): ...
Well, one obvious effect of cats acquiring flight ability would be that they would be much more effective in catching birds (it of course depends on how well/fast the cats can fly). Probably the nu...
Assuming planet Earth, with considerable amounts of pets per household (96 million cats in the US alone), what would be the social and ecological consequences of all domestic cats acquiring flight ...
For the sake of this question, let's say that there would be a space mission that would send one man on a 40 year journey that will require him to be in a completely self sufficient habitat for the...
