Activity for ApproachingDarknessFish‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Question	—	Requirements for melting snow from orbit using EM radiation My (your) goal is to melt several tons of snow and ice in a small area using electromagnetic radiation beamed down from a spacecraft in orbit. The atmosphere that's in the way is vaguely Earth-like but with less oxygen and more nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The planet is comparable in radius to Earth.... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	Maximizing the vertical range of livable air pressure In Larry Niven's short story "Bordered in Black", there's a planet (Sirius B-IV) with much lower gravity than Earth. As a result, the planet has a gentler atmospheric pressure gradient, i.e., the air pressure changes less over the same vertical distance. Because of this, the planet had clouds as high... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	Confusing predators with reflected or refracted sunlight Imagine a large butterfly- or moth-like creature, with a wingspan of about one meter (it's moth-like, not actually related to Earth insects). It lives its entire life high in the open sky, never touching (or even approaching) the ground. Additionally, as a consequence of this world's broader cosmolog... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	What sort of cybernetic/genetic enhancements would make sense for cold-blooded soldiers leaving their natural habitat? In the world I'm building, there's a race of sapient, technologically advanced lizard people, most of whom live in an enormous, climate-controlled city. Based on the answers to this question, it seems that being cold-blooded could actually be an advantage in such an environment, where they can keep a... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Question	—	How can a substance that doesn't follow the laws of physics look and feel like ordinary matter? Imagine a world that works mostly like our own: it's built of atoms and quantum particles, there's gravity and conservation of energy, etc. Perhaps the physical laws aren't exactly the same as our universe, for sci-fi purposes, but overall the world looks, feels, and operates just like our own--with ... (more)	—	almost 8 years ago
Question	—	The (Alternative) Reason for the Seasons, Part 2: Variable Star Part 1 On Earth, we have seasons due to our planet's tilt. In my last question, I proposed an alternative world where the seasons were instead caused by an eccentric orbit. Now I'm going for something more exotic. Instead of axial tilt or orbital eccentricity, what if the seasons were caused by actu... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Question	—	The (Alternative) Reason for the Seasons: Highly Eccentric Orbit On Earth, we experience seasons because of our planet's axial tilt. It is a common misconception that the seasons are instead caused by our planet's distance from the sun changing as it orbits. The Earth's distance from the sun does change throughout the year, but the change is far too small to h... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Question	—	Using feathers as fingers Recently, I've been struggling to create an avian race that evolved hands to replace its wings. The consensus on that question was that it was not evolutionarily realistic for the bones of a wing to rearrange into the bones of a hand. But then another idea hit me: if the bones of the wing are too spe... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	Evolving an intelligent avian race with a human-like appearance Having read this excellent question and its answers, I've tried to come up with an evolutionary history for a sapient, avian race that populates part of a world I'm building. I'd like feedback as to whether what I've come up with so far makes sense, and help filling in a few gaps, especially in regar... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	How can I preseve a small sample of blood for centuries? I have a race of carnivorous mammals (the same from this question) for whom blood plays an extremely important role in cultural rituals. For complex cultural reasons, a member of this race (call him Fred) decides it's a good idea to preserve a few milliliters of his blood so that another member of hi... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	Feasibility of giant flatworm people There are lots of examples in fiction of lizard people, bird people or beast people, but I'd like to expand my phylogenetic horizons in conceptualizing my world. To that end, I have conceptualized a race of large, sentient flatworm people. I am not an artist so I will spare you an attempt as visuali... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Question	—	Could complex, macroscopic life arise and exist without cells? For the purposes of this question only, I am making the following definitions: Cell: a microscopic, membrane-bound subunit of a living organism. Living organism: an entity composed primarily of biological macromolecules that eats, reproduces, and evolves. Everything on Earth that is unambiguously... (more)	—	almost 9 years ago
Question	—	What would life be like on the remnants of a shattered planet? The year is 2089. The political shenanigans of the day have gotten more out of hand than usual and violent zealots have detonated the Earth's largest deposit of plotium devicide, an extremely versatile chemical compound that in this instance explodes with sufficient power to destroy the Earth. The pl... (more)	—	almost 9 years ago
Question	—	Could a space-dwelling creature survive solely off of sunlight? On Earth, photosynthetic organisms require additional nutrients to survive; in addition to "feeding" off of sunlight, plants respire and absorb water from the ground in order to grow. However, the Earth is a closed system chemically speaking, so fundamentally all chemical resources are recycled thr... (more)	—	about 10 years ago