Activity for Zxyrra
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
What environmental factors would cause bipedalism underwater? While reading this question about how non-primate mammals could develop a bipedal stance, I became curious about the broader reasons why animals could evolve to walk on two legs. I found some insights at this question, which inquires about felines in particular. The accepted answer states, Movin... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Where do hydrothermal vents form inside icy ocean worlds? Context: In a near-future version of our solar system, humans have established multiple underwater colonies on Jupiter's moon Europa. Many of these outposts are situated next to hydrothermal vents along the moon's rocky mantle. I want to place colonies next to vents as I make the world map, but I don... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Generating breathable air on Europa? Humans have colonized the subsurface oceans of Europa - building large cities embedded in the icy crust, hanging beneath it, and resting on the rocky seafloor. These colonists mine metals for construction from the mantle and harvest local fauna for food - but where do they get their air? Known resou... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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How big can Europan fish get? Assumptions: Jupiter's moon Europa has a salty subsurface ocean in contact with a rocky mantle. The ocean is populated by hydrothermal vents produced by tidal heating. Global heat flow is similar to that of Earth (0.089 W/m^2). Lower gravity means lower buoyancy which means less heat transport - so... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Tree Shape on a Tidally Locked World I'm designing a tidally locked world around a red dwarf star. The habitable ring is an Earth analogue. The atmosphere and gravity are similar to Earth's, and we're going to pretend the wind is negligible. Initially, I wanted to make concentric rings of Earth-like habitats: tropics near the day-side,... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Where do you put a photosynthetic Dyson sphere? One of the answers to What could make a star green? describes a living Dyson sphere made of photosynthetic, plant-like material. What type of star or star system is ideal for a plant-like Dyson sphere? Keeping in mind access to nutrients and a healthy dose of radiation... Protostars seem like a g... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How will the first New Martians evolve? Mars gets somewhat nice In about 1.6 billion years, the sun's habitable zone will have moved outward, increasing the carbon dioxide in Mars's atmosphere. According to Wikipedia, its surface temperature will rise "to levels akin to Earth during the ice age". Combining a thick carbon dioxide layer t... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do you communicate with dark matter beings? Sister question to How do you communicate with antimatter beings? Defining dark matter for this question According to NASA, 27% of the universe is dark matter - and about 5% of the universe is normal matter. Dark matter is a substance that doesn't interact with electromagnetism. That means... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What are alternative particles to photons that would allow vision? I swear I saw this question elsewhere. Let me know if this is a dupe. Photons are great. They're little bundles of energy that Reflect off of nearly everything, allowing us to see faraway objects that don't necessarily produce their own light Are practically everywhere, allowing us to see most ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do you communicate with antimatter beings? So aliens have arrived in the solar system. They have faster-than-light travel technology and the ability to handwave away the supposed causality violations that such an invention causes They're peaceful, and currently reside in orbit around Earth's moon They're from an isolated, antimatter galaxy,... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Creating an organism without evolution in a lab environment It's hard to create a new animal from scratch. If you genetically modify an existing species until it becomes a drastically different species, then implant the fertilized embryo in a female of the original species, the offspring will not survive birth. This means you can't make drastic genetic chan... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do you power a cyborg? In this answer about how to design the ideal cyborg, I said: ... Use electric tissue to power the machines. Cyborgs need some way to generate electricity when mechanical parts are involved. Rather than batteries, which can corrode and leak, generators, which are noisy, or charging, which ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Can life arise on a brown dwarf? Brown dwarfs are celestial bodies in the gray area between planet and star. They're huge, gaseous, hot compared to planets, and come in all different kinds. (1) Is it possible for life to develop in the outer layers of such an object? (2) If so, how large and/or complex could it get before being co... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Do the moons of Mars have enough gravity to colonize? Context NASA commissioned some awesome, vintage-style prints a while back advertising the colonization of Mars. Three of them stood out to me because they depicted colonization of the moons of Mars - Phobos and / or Deimos. (The rest of those prints are here, and they're free) I would like to... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Why did dragons evolve to be smart? Before you comment "dragons can't happen", we've been there before. Based on the question linked above, assume dragons are scientifically plausible. You may change what you need about the accepted answer to the above question if it helps you answer this one, but stay within the realm of sci... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What could make a star violet? Part of a series I'm starting since the recent What could make a star green? did quite well and others could use the information here in their worlds. There aren't any "violet" stars. When a star emits a significant amount of violet light, it also emits blue light, which humans are better at de... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What could make a star green? Stars are never green. When a star's spectra "peaks" in the green range, it also releases a significant number of waves of the adjacent colors - so "green" stars appear yellow or white. I want a green star anyways. How can such a star come about if they do not exist that way in nature (as far a... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Let's evolve whales and dolphins back onto land The common evolutionary belief is that life originated in water, and that it developed to survive on land later on. Eventually, mammals evolved on land. Cetaceans, which include dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals, then evolved from land-dwelling creatures, going back into the water. Some ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Can we identify distinct "colors" beyond visible light? Let's talk about the visible light "rainbow" In almost all depictions of the electromagnetic spectrum, visible light is shown as a rainbow, and adjacent parts of the spectrum are monotone in color - there is no UV or infrared rainbow to be seen. This is justified - the vast majority of people (... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How exactly will humanity leave Earth? "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million." "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space." - Stephen Hawking Many scientists believe that it's t... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Is there a realistic path from antibiotic resistance to pandemic? By using antibiotics too frequently, some argue, we're setting the world up for a pandemic that we cannot treat. Every time an antibiotic substance is used, the bacteria that survive reproduce. Every time the new ones are introduced to stronger antibiotics, those that survive reproduce again. Throug... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Greatest possible genetic difference between a male and female of the same species? Nature does some pretty interesting things with gender: This is a female trilobite beetle. Scientists have observed females extensively, yet for decades, scientists could not identify the male triolobite beetle. Of course there had to be one, as the females cannot reproduce asexually - but the ma... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Inducing Ignorance in the Brain Context: Brains in Vats and Virtual Reality on Steroids In the (reasonably near) future, humans have developed the field of medicine significantly, and we now have the technology to isolate the brain in a vat of oxygenated fluid. Assume the process of doing so is safe, although irreversible, and th... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do you make a somatic mutation spread across all cells? Toxic Spiders and Experiments Gone Wrong: Let's Talk About Comic Book Mutations Numerous superheroes get their powers after something mutates their cells. Perhaps it's a gamma ray, and results in a morphological change every time the hero is stressed; or maybe an irradiated spider, that gives t... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Accuracy of timekeeping based on the age of Earth In many countries, we number the years based off of proximity to an event in the Christian religion - we are over 2016 years past that date. However, in this scenario, religion has become less mainstream, as, you could argue, it has been doing steadily over time in real life. In this scenario, the w... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Preventing Blindness from Microgravity According to a recent National Geographic article, astronauts returning home after longer missions suffer permanently impaired vision. This is a problem that must be addressed in hard-science worlds if realism is desired - yet it is often overlooked. Some of the other problems associated with micro... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Can "photographic memory" evolve? According to multiple reputable sources, the idea of "photographic memory" in humans is a myth. While some people may be unusually adept at certain things involving memory - like remembering the layout of a chess board, or where any given card is within the deck - no one can actually recall images of... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Would aliens evolve a method of communication other than speaking? Not a duplicate of "Overcoming language barrier; no speech" which confines answers to nothing that is clearly a form of communication; it focuses on translation, not physiology or evolution Not a duplicate of "Where Speech is Impossible" which confines the scenario to sign language and asks for just... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Let's paint the world with bacteria Some estimates put the percent of Earth's surface covered by landfills at 0.02%. Even if the world composted and recycled as much as possible, we would be left with an insanely large amount of waste to break down. We must find a way to deal with waste that cannot decompose in its current environme... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How cold can a planet actually get? The coldest place in the universe that we have observed is in the Boomerang Nebula. Similarly to a refrigerator, heat is carried away through a fluid, resulting in a space colder than the surrounding environment. However, in the case of the Boomerang Nebula, the coolant is heated gas being expelled a... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Making humans 'see' in slow motion According to several sources, all organisms process information at different rates - to a fly, the world is in slow motion (relative to humans), for instance, but to a pigeon, the world may move faster. If the ability to see the world in "slow motion", which is now known to be biologically possible,... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Are "none-of-the-above" species classifications possible? Let's not delve into specific genuses, families, orders etc. Broaden your definition of "classifications" to words like "mammal" or "fish", "crustacean" or "avian". Science fiction depictions of species often resemble Earthlike categories - there will be some variation of a mammal, or some slightl... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What would cause turkeys to be intelligent? In the spirit of Thanksgiving (US) let's tackle a fun one. I'm defining "intelligent" in this situation as "at least on par with hunter-gatherer humans, able to communicate" What natural, environmental pressures would cause turkeys to evolve intelligence, based on the pressures that cause intelligen... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How can nuclear power produce -electricity- in space when energy must be converted differently? Hear me out before you downvote; It's not as simple as it seems. On Earth, nuclear reactions produce heat energy. This is used to heat water, creating steam, powering turbines connected to generators - and voila, electricity. IN SPACE, If you attempt to use thermal energy to produce steam, it will ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do you circulate cryoprotectants through the human body? Context if you're interested In the very near future, a planet teeming with alien life is discovered several light years away from our Solar System - and with a few precautions, it may be habitable to human life. Individual species have not been identified, but there are clear signs of biochemic... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How and why would an organism evolve BioSteel? BioSteel is a substance produced by goats whose DNA has received the silk-producing genes of spiders. While silkworms are generally social creatures, spiders are reclusive, meaning they cannot be farmed effectively for their strong silk. However, when silk-producing chemicals can be made "naturally... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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What are the limits of superatom engineering? Context Recently, scientists have began researching superatoms and supermolecules in depth. The premise is that existing, natural elements can be rearranged into clusters, in the lab, to exhibit properties they normal wouldn't - for example, "a siliconlike superconductor with the biodegrada... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How large can an Earth species be in 2016 without being discovered? Preface With all technology discovered prior to this question, on today's planet, there are still some things we have not observed - which may be used to justify introducing new life forms, right here at home, in a story. There are a LOT of unexplored places on Earth We've explored less t... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Under what circumstances will magnetic levitation kill Average Joe? After the WorldBuilding community helped Average Joe start his own microstate, Joe has become scientifically inclined, and uses his money to conduct somewhat dangerous research projects from his new soverign position as President of Somewhere. (Might not end well) Now Joe, thinkin... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Where and how can we mine diamonds outside of Earth but within our Solar System? Edited to give a reason why synthetic diamonds wouldn't work instead. In the distant future, all the diamonds are gone. While synthetic diamonds are an excellent sollution for technology - as @ChrisJohns has noted, sometimes synthetic diamonds work best for processing, cutting etc - the jewelry i... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A creature afraid of the light "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." "” H.P. Lovecraft One example of this is the universal fear of the dark. We cannot sense what is there, and so we try to either avoid dark spaces, or light them up. That bri... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Feasibility of a Synthetic Buoyancy Bladder, Used in the Air Many fish have specialized organs called buoyancy bladders which allow them to control their buoyancy - effectively rising or sinking in the water. What if humans adapted this to use in the air? I'm picturing something like a balloon, strapped to the user's back, that filters specific gasses less de... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How does biochemistry relate to nutrients needed for life? Many questions describe hypothetical biochemistries, or alternatives to carbon, water, DNA, etc that aliens could use. They cite specific examples, given a world we know about, of what creatures would need to metabolize. For example: (Titan's environment): Low temperature. 45% larger atmospheric... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Is there a plausible way to exchange matter between spatial dimensions? Assuming humans live in dimension 3+1; 3 spatial dimensions, length width and height, and one dimension of time, Is it possible to move matter from our dimension 3+1 to another, such as 4+1 (adding a spatial dimension) or 2+1 (removing a spatial dimension)? This would have the practical applicatio... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Would an alien species need to produce waste? All organisms on Earth produce waste. Whether an organism's respiration has a byproduct, or it just doesn't process all food it consumes, it will always put some amount of matter into the environment after consumption. Would this have to be true for an alien? i.e. Could an alien organism choose and... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How would a planet-sized computer power receive power? Imagine: A Kardashev Type I civilization mainly resides on a planet analogous to Earth, with one moon, analogous to Earth's moon. Eventually, the society grows so complex that machines filling space becomes a serious problem: the world's growing population needs food more than it needs machinery, but... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |