Posts by kingledion
Assume that an Alcubierre drive is feasible. In fact, assume that one has been built. A superluminal starship can propel itself through space by distorting space in front of it and behind it. Howev...
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. So begins Wikipedia's article on carbon monoxide (CO). To the best of my inte...
On Blue Planet 2: The Deep (at least, that is the title in the US version), there is discussion of crabs that grow bacteria on themselves as a food source. In the show, they kind of looked like the...
This creature was void-born in the farthest depths of time in this Universe. Drawing its energy from electromagnetic radiation, and sealed against the vacuum of space, this drifting creature establ...
It is the near-future. Breakthrough, mass produced carbon nanotubes have been invented and are relatively cheap. These nanotubes have the properties that we would expect, and are manufactured in 'r...
Supposing I have a room currently occupied by Jedi Knights, or some other force that I can't defeat with battle droids and brute strength. I wish to incapacitate the occupants of this room with a g...
Supposing a world like the Underdark, full of civilizations that developed and live their lives completely away from the light of the sun. In the typical D&D type setting, these creatures have...
A side shot from my series on a computer-less future; see here, here, and here. Project Rho defines a torch-drive as an engine with both high acceleration and high exhaust velocity. A torch-ship i...
Introduction See background information here. 1000 years after darkness fell on Old Earth, humanity is scattered throughout the solar system. Apart from the Harmonious Republic of Mars, there are...
In the world of this question, ants and especially termites are the dominant herbivores by mass. There are no large grazing mammals competing with the bugs for the siliceous grasses and thorny tree...
The Progenitors are an ancient race of almost infinite technological sophisitication, who mysteriously vanished millions of years ago for no good reason (I don't like TV Tropes, but you are welcome...
Background This is a Terror Bird: Specifically, this is Titanis one of the largest of the carnivorous Phorusrhacidae; it was perhaps 2.5 meters tall and 150 kg. I would like a terror bird that...
Background It is the near future. After a major world war and limited nuclear exchange, the nations of Earth have consolidated into a few blocs. The threat of further war and the cumulative damage...
What is the most powerful magnetic field that could be generated by a planetary object? The measurement of 'powerful' will be field strength ($\mathbf{B}$-field) at the planet's surface, in teslas....
Setting In a tropical shore, where a great river empties into the sea, there is a zone of very high tides. The water level rises and falls by meters every day. In this challenging ecosystem, alter...
The Bay of Fundy sees the world's highest tides, with ocean water advancing and withdrawing as much as 20 meters or more within a single day. Here is a list of the 50 tidal stations around the wo...
Problem statement I am building a world where the flora and fauna is based on that of Gondwana, the lost supercontinent that consisted of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia and An...
Problem statement There exists a thriving Bronze Age civilization in a gigantic rainforest, bigger than the Amazon and Congo put together. This civilization is built in on the flood plains of a mi...
On 20 October 1861, while in Paris, Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph Maria von Hapsburg, brother of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, received a letter from Jose Maria Gutierrez de Estrada, a Mexican nobl...
Some hundreds of years ago, all humanity was removed from the Americas. In fact, most humans are gone from the world altogether. In the intervening time, nature has overrun the formerly human domin...
Some hundreds of years ago, all humanity was removed from the Americas. In fact, most humans are gone from the world altogether. In the intervening time, nature has overrun the formerly human domin...
Let us develop an industrial electric motor from first principles. Alessandro Volta developed a battery whose ingredients were copper, zinc, seawater, and imagination. These ingredients have been ...
Obviously, you can't just send a bunch of out-of-work Kentucky coal miners up there to give it a go. You need some sort of specialized equipment. What I want to know is: what equipment will it be? ...
The world is a steamy tropical ball reminiscient of Earth in the time of the dinosaurs. There is no permanent ice cover anywhere on Earth. An arctic continent, entirely within the polar circle, is ...
Background There is a world with flora and fauna based on the life forms that evolved on Gondwana (see here for previous questions). Humans colonized this continent from a distant one some thousan...
