Posts by Matthew
Let's say I have a bunch of pre-pubescent children (circa 8-12 years old). Let's also say I subjected them to some drug/process/whatever that caused them to stop growing. In particular: Whatever...
No. The way we define latitude and longitude is based on the planet's axis of rotation. You can certainly (AFAIK) have a planet with a 90° axial inclination, or (probably) a planet that is identica...
Vampirism. There are benefits and drawbacks, but one of the benefits is not aging. Great if you get turned in your early twenties, but... what happens if you are turned earlier? Being turned as an...
Both this site and Wikipedia assert that L4 and L5 are stable for a mass up to about 25 times the mass of the secondary. Since plain old Jupiter is about 318 Earth-masses. Since a) 318 is more than...
It's pure handwavium... but it's not completely absurd. As noted in Christopher's answer, powerguns work via a hand-wavium reaction that generates plasma from a specially formed matrix of "stuff" ...
@M_A_Golding notes: An objective outside observer might consider orcas and other cetaceans to be intelligent beings This suggests another possibility. If you can engineer "humans" with alien ...
Frame Challenge One of the criteria you gave is: The sections are under the standard 0.992 gee acceleration. This is thrust induced, necessary to hold them in an orbit closer to their primary ...
I'm going to take a bit different approach to this based on the revisions... unfortunately I don't have math to back this up, but it should at least get you started thinking in a useful direction. ...
Maybe... but probably not. It's possible that an animal that is "used" to seeing polarization would be able to infer this information from a reproduction that lacks it, based on other effects. Thi...
Shapeshifters and mass... ever the bane of realistic science fiction. Basics: Let's say someone is changing shape (for whatever reason, voluntary or involuntary, it doesn't matter for this purpos...
Unless trees don't exist, this is dodgy. Even in the actual Great Plains, there are trees, especially around bodies of water. (This includes streams and ponds; you don't need something like the Gre...
Say I have a race of obligate carnivores (for simplicity, we'll say they're felinoid). They have carnivore dentition, and must eat meat as a major component of their diet, but they can also eat fru...
As indicated in my comments, it's not at all clear what you're expecting to get out of this software. I highly doubt anything designed specifically for what you want to do exists. You're asking ab...
So... I'm fiddling with Yet Another Bipedal Digitigrade Species. There is tons of material on the legs, but seemingly not so much on the hands. Short Version So... I'm wondering; is it possible t...
Safehold and Stargate both tried this. Neither worked out, but then, the point of both stories was people trying to overcome the "tech hurdle". In both instances, you have some sort of strict pros...
It would be foggy. In fact, it would probably look somewhat like fog illuminated by a car's headlights. I assume the reason this isn't obvious is because you're thinking that this glowing air is ...
I'm going to post this anyway, even though it overlaps with M.Winkens' answer, because a) I thought of it first (note comments on the question), and b) I think the other answer is missing a few poi...
I have to give partial credit to gianluca, whose answer inspired this, but... what if They live in the ocean If your aliens live underwater, and especially if they only live in deep water and don...
Bring a canary with them. When it dies, find fresh air fast. Yes, it's a trite answer, but it's also what we did back before we had technological ways of monitoring air quality. If they're allowe...
I don't think a "display" can accomplish this... but if it's a feature intentionally built into the mirror (and not just an "accidental" misuse of what it could otherwise do), there are certainly L...
Yes... and no. Since no one else has done so yet, I'll point out the elephant in the room... You are writing for a human audience. Humans think in words. Therefore, no matter what ideas anyone com...
Yes and no, and possibly "it depends on what you mean by "civilization". As L. Dutch already noted, technological development is more a function of available resources and population density. On...
Look at dogs and cats for inspiration. Besides doing things with their tongues (as CaptainSkyfish suggested; good suggestion!), think also about angle of their head. Do they have mobile ears (or ea...
Humans would seem to be a strong argument at least for the plausibility. While typical western culture doesn't exactly fit the bill, there have been arguments that some human cultures qualify. The...
they posses wings that stretch out over 1 mile Your species is extremely implausible. There are very few structures, period, that are this large; in fact, the only such structures I'm aware of...
