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Sparkling Pele's hair Tiny tinfoil confetti! How about we keep the ability to start fires artificially, but make enough changes so that fires do not start naturally? There are two main causes tha...
The answers so far have assumed that the galaxy in question is a spiral galaxy - and if we're talking about the Milky Way, then that's all well and good. But galaxies are pretty diverse, both in sh...
Nitrous oxide A.k.a. the laughing gas. It is a colorless, with an almost unnoticeable metallic taste. Some WB users may know it as a mild anesthetic, for instance in dentistry. Exposure to nitro...
Let me add two more options: Option 1: Progeria, or the "good" farnesol deficiency Real-world Progeria is a disease causing accelerated aging. Affected individuals typically live to their teens, ...
This has been done in a smaller scale in The Integral Trees (1984) by Larry Niven The story occurs around the fictional neutron star Levoy's Star (abbreviated "Voy"). The gas giant Goldblatt's ...
Mutation Starting from our current evolutionary state the first step is a sudden mutation to have some form of tail again. This one can be very small and doesn't need to have any real effect. Se...
Most vertibrate life on earth follows a 4 limb body plan (in this instance, the wings are two limbs and the legs are the other two). There are a number of mythical creatures with 6 limbs; Pegasus, ...
No, this would not work The problem is the angle at which other creatures, such as your astronauts, are looking at the creature. The far closer lights from the predator would appear to change thei...
If you mean to grow on the outside of the building, like a climbing vine, I think the answer is probably yes. Oxygen is one of the limiting factors, but the bigger one is heat, since a frozen plan...
Let's first think about what causes solar flares. The processes behind them are not substantially well-understood, but we do have some ideas. Magnetic reconnection is one possibility. Essentially, ...
So the first question. If the microbe doesn't have to exist on Earth already, then there is no reason for it to not be possible. Just say that this super microbe does exist, and when combined with ...
Not for a planet, but for a smaller body. Massive bodies are in hydrostatic equilibrium. Gravity pulls them into spheres, eliminating most non-negligible variations from perfect roundness. Obvious...
Of course! Accumulators Accumulators are easier to produce. Volta's battery design could be complemented by a manual worker hot-swapping batteries to the electric engine, just in the same way in ...
Possibly one would refer to the most common thing/action that happens during the 24h cycles. For instance, sleepies, from sleeping wakies, from waking up waits, from the fact that you need to wa...
It's called cleaning symbiosis This is definitely a viable idea. To give you some information from the linked Wikipedia article: Cleaning symbiosis in our nature Cleaning symbiosis is a mutu...
Consider camouflage colors, for desert, forest, water, city, or whatever environment they do most of their hunting in. Splotches of the most common colors found in such environments. Although splot...
Do the carving over a long period of time. The advantage here is you get scar tissue that forms the patterns. Divide it up into, say, a dozen sessions over the course of a year (or a month if you...
Let me address your second paragraph: Upon thinking more about this, sight in the infrared band seems like it would come with several problems. This vision would be relying on the radiant emitt...
How hard would it be for humans to colonize an exoplanet with a size significantly different than that of earth (but otherwise suitable for life)? Let's deal with low-gravity exoplanets fi...
Ok, there are a few mechanisms that could allow your planet to have continents with reasonably uniform climate. Thicker Atmosphere The thicker the atmosphere of your world, the more heat will be ...
Orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile (AKA CS gas or 'tear' gas) - it won't actually knock them out but it will definitely incapacitate them very quickly unless they happen to have full-face respirators h...
Many Type II diabetics use insulin and others may use different medications that affect insulin production and use but in a slower way. Diet works in most people here. Eat very lowcarb. It's not...
Polar bears eat ice seals (and some others). Could they learn to eat Antarctic seals instead? Maybe. Would they eat penguins? Maybe. In both cases, the hunting for them would be different, as ...
Ok, lets start with a population of 10,000 colonists. I will assume that the population consists entirely of adults that have been selected to be of reproductive age, and that half the population ...
To determine the color of the plants most likely to arise on a planet orbiting the star, we have to consider the wavelengths of peak absorption of different photosynthetic pigments. I would argue t...
