Activity for Liath‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	Is it possible to orbit inside a gas giant? When we talk about orbits we often imagine a ship or station orbiting a planet outside its atmosphere. Is it possible a ship could go into orbit inside its atmosphere (perhaps to hide from other craft) or would it be torn apart by the gravity and atmosphere of the planet? (more)	—	almost 8 years ago
Question	—	Could humanesque creatures ever be eusocial? I was watching a television program recently about Naked Mole Rats and how they are they are one of the only known Eusocial mammals. They have a single queen who produces offspring as well as warriors and worker castes (the most well known example is an ant colony). This got me thinking could humans... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Question	—	If humans were grown to maturity how long would it take? In my world human(oid)s are not born anymore, they are grown in pods which mirror the conditions of a natural womb. Children are educated before birth and are "born" as fully mature adults with a standard education ready to join society. How long would this process take? I assume that artificial gr... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	If a species didn't sleep how else would they "recharge"? Humans (and most animals) sleep. The reasons aren't really clear but most people believe: We have to sleep because it is essential to maintaining normal levels of cognitive skills such as speech, memory, innovative and flexible thinking. In other words, sleep plays a significant role in brain... (more)	—	almost 9 years ago
Question	—	How would a child of a human and alien inherit abilities? Imagine a child of mixed race, one parent is human and one is an alien who has some ability humans do not have, for the sake of argument telepathy. I'm assuming there is some advanced medical assistance to allow the mother to conceive at all. I'm interested in what would happen to the ability only o... (more)	—	about 9 years ago
Question	—	Sleeping on planets with very long days Consider a planet where a day, that is to say the amount of time a specific (roughly equatorial) point is in sunlight is much longer than on earth. A humanoid race has evolved on this planet. You can assume that days and nights are roughly the same length as each other. On Earth we have evolved and ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What form of anti-gravity is the most feasible? Many sci-fi words use anti-gravity or artificial gravity to manipulate the weight of their ships making flight much easier. Wikipedia even has an article on it which discusses several attempts to make objects float. The main approaches seem to be: Gravity shields Gyroscopes Warp drives Superconduc... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How would an aquatic race develop computers? Following on from this question and assuming the race in question had developed the ability to create tools how would they approach the need for mass calculation. Our early computers were used to calculate large amounts of financial information, how would an underwater species approach this problem ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How would an aquatic civilisation forge tools? One of the first steps in technological is the ability of a civilisation to forge tools humans achieved this by using fire and creating forges. There are obviously underwater heat sources but I don't anticipate our sea-folk being able to use the heat from underwater volcanoes any more than we can ab... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What would happen if a virus could not be cured or contained? 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 not interested in how humanity would adapt I want to know about how the infected rates/death tolls over t... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Would my compass still work? Imagine a world with a very wacky magnetic field, the magnetic poles are not aligned at the top of the axial tilt and the sun is active enough to cause huge northern lights each night. I know electronic systems would fail but would a compass still point at the magnetic pole or would it be rendered u... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How realistic are four legged aquatic animals? On earth most of our sealife is fishlike (excluding a few other species such as squid/octopus). As far as I'm aware there are no legged creatures which live solely in the sea. In my world I'd like to have creatures like the sando aqua monster from Star Wars, it clearly has four legs and uses it's ta... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What would be the communication range of an underwater species? It's a commonly known fact that whale song travels huge distances. In fact apparently before the oceans were so noisy they could communicate over 10,000km! However, whales are very big! They can create very loud noises, far louder than any being of 2 metres. In addition whalesong is typically around... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is it more likely that merfolk would evolve with horizontal or vertical tails? Another mermaid questions I'm afraid! Fish have tail fins which are vertical, whales have fins which are horizontal. My race of merfolk are: Very active (more likely to be warm blooded) Have gills and lungs so can breath in and out of water Have scaled tails (like a fish) and human-like skin on th... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What is my bedrock? I'm looking for a rock from which my island is constructed. It needs to be: Either created from the sea or via intense pressure/heat Capable of trapping layers of gas beneath it White(ish) I was thinking about limestone but I'm not sure if islands with large quantities of limestone are realistic.... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is it possible to genetically modify a being after birth? In many stories we hear about people whose genetic structure is modified after they're born (Spider-man, The Fantastic 4 and practically any other superhero you care to mention). However current science focuses very much on modifying the DNA at the earliest stages of life (if not before) and allowing... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What efficiencies make a realistic food chain? I'm trying to design a food chain. For the sake of argument lets say it's based on flying creatures over a particular mountain range. Sun Plants/Fungus etc Tiny Insects Small Birds Hawks Large Apex Predator However I'm struggling with getting the balance right. Obviously the big predators are the ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What light gas can I have in the upper atmosphere? I want to have an upper atmosphere composed of a gas which is lighter than "air" so that my human occupants of a planet can harvest it and use it to fill blimps and hot air balloons. I'm planning on having my "normal air" as Nitrogen Oxygen as I see no need to change it from Earth-like. I'd rather n... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is it possible for a species to have more than two sexes? Every species I'm aware of on earth has two sexes (with the possible exception of species which change their sexes to allow self fertilization). Is it possible for a species to evolve which could have more than two sexes? How would such a race be competitive against species which only required two b... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What factors would allow for two dominant species on a world? On Earth humanity has taken the dominant role (excluding dolphins and mice of course). We know of conflicts in pre-history where our ancestors have overtaken other species and slowly wiped them out. What circumstances would allow two (or more) species to evolve on a planet side by side? What could h... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How do creatures with a hive mind communicate? Suppose we have a civilisation which is made up of many creatures sharing a single hive mind. Each creature can see, hear and remember what each other member of the species (or possibly hive) has seen heard and experienced, they think and make decisions as one. Range limits are acceptable. They are ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What Effect Does Moving the Magnetic Poles of a Planet Have? On Earth the planet's magnetic poles line up fairly well with the geographic poles. This makes things like navigation very straightforward as all compasses point to (roughly) the north pole. However there are planets where this is not the case (Uranus for example). Obviously Uranus is a gas gia... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	How can I create an enormous crater? My world has a huge crater (4400 miles in diameter) on a world that's roughly earth equivalent (so a circumference of 25000 miles). The native population doesn't need to know how it was formed but it would be nice if the world creator did! Around the edge is a ring of islands, inside and outside the... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Is there a maximum size an ocean bound creature could grow to? Assuming the ocean is deep enough and not overcrowded is there any upper limits to the size a "sea monster" can grow? On land creatures are limited by gravity, they have to be able to generate the forces required to move (not to mention hunt, escape and reproduce). However in water the buoyancy does... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Can you simply scale up animals? There have been a number of questions focusing on mythical creatures where the logical approach to answering has been to scale up an existing animal. For example dragon's wings can be extrapolated from other flying animals or the speed of an insectoid creature from insects in our world. However evol... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What factors determine a planet's gravity? In Science Fiction we often see the protagonists exploring all sorts of strange new worlds with no apparent discomfort to the variations in gravity. What factors determine how strong the gravity will be on a planet? Is it purely based on the size of the planet in question or are other factors like c... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: How would having multiple moons affect tides? TLDR You can model the effect of two moons by summing two sine waves. To do this plot each moon as a function of Time and manipulate the gravity of the moon by changing the amplitude and the orbital period by multiplying the time variable. A final plot showing the summation of the others gives the ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	Are geographically typed planets realistic? In many science fictions we see planets which are designated by a particular terrain type. For example, Dagobah is a swamp planet, Tatooine is a desert planet, and Kamino is an ocean world. However, Earth has a much more varied and interesting geography with all kinds of environments stretching from... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Question	—	What Factors Could Cause a World to See "Northern" Lights Much Closer to the Equator? I'm currently designing a world where the inhabitants see the Aurora Borealis on an almost nightly basis almost all the way to the equator. The lights are so strong they rarely see the stars beyond. I've been wondering what could cause this, increased solar activity? Stronger magnetic poles? So far ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago