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[Lithotrophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithotroph) is a phenomenon known from microscopic life, where an organism converts inorganic substances, usually minerals, into energy.
So, we know that a single-celled life form can do this, but what about a more complex one? **Could a macroscopic, motile, an... |
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In the world I'm building, a nuclear war and subsequent repressive chaos have led all satellites to be destroyed by the powers that be, around 10 years from now. A few years later, a small spacecraft, which doesn't have a heat resistant cover to allow it to enter the atmosphere, reaches Earth orbit and p... |
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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 surrounded on its seaward edge by [giant mushroom forests](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions... |
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On my world sulphur dioxide makes up most of the atmosphere (42%). It comes from constantly active land-based and Hydrothermal vents. I know there are basic, or basic compared to a human, organisms that can 'breathe' sulphur dioxide. Would it be possible for a sentient and relatively large creature to br... |
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**This question already has answers here**:
[How would an avian city be different from ours?](/questions/2975/how-would-an-avian-city-be-different-from-ours)
(5 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
I have bird-like race that I'm writing about, but I have no idea what their houses will be like. I have few ... |
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I am writing a story (well, developing one) in which a humanoid **intelligently genetically engineered** species is effectively immortal. The creature maintains its lifespan through a thick-shelled seed about the size of a child's fist which rests below the heart. Within the seed there are exact copies o... |
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In my setting elves can see very well in the dark. I've suggested tapetum lucidim but that would make their vision less clear so would larger pupils make it easier to see in low light areas?
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Practical limit is the precision of the whole optical elements composing the eye.
It is well known a l... |
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I am attempting to make my species of elves more alien to humans.
My plan is to change their physiology in a very specific way.
How realistic would it be for them to have retractable claws similar to a feline?
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As dmm said, fingers are pretty poor locations for normal claws, retractable or oth... |
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I am writing a book in which criminals get their hands on a polymer which resembles chewing gum , but alters their saliva. This allows them to burn holes into walls made from plastic used as building material in an alternate future of earth.
-Is it possible to create a "gum" that alters saliva enough to ... |
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I was reading [this](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/83750/26281) question about a soft bullet thereby getting inspired to think of how to deliver a fake insect sting. I want it to leave as little bruises as possible, to resemble a sting and nothing to remain in the wound. Ideally, it would loo... |
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After a politically destabilizing incident that could lead to a regional war, a sentient android from a foreign government has offered to help the navy track down a space pirate turned fanatical warlord.
A simplistic political sketch of the three "sides" (from the POV of the Navy characters):
1. **The N... |
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I'm asking this question about an already-built world, in accordance with [Are questions based on movies okay?](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3141/34523).
One of the most famous props on the television show *Doctor Who* is the [sonic screwdriver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_screw... |
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Imagine an ecosystem where animals have evolved highly developed mimicry of each other’s calls (perhaps they have the [universal vocal apparatus](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/78151) discussed in earlier questions). So predators lure prey, prey confuse ... |
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Ok I'm not exactly sure how to tag this or where to ask, but...
**Could someone create living, breeding-viable wolf adults with the genes responsible for Siamese points (as found in the cat breed), and various breed-acceptable coat colors?**
**The end goal would be a population of otherwise normal Siames... |
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Oligosynthetic languages are languages with many suffixes and few roots, often leading to a vocabulary of only a few hundred words. While common in constructed languages, they are not found in nature.
* Is it possible for a cultures language to be oligosynthetic? If this
is not feasible, how close can I... |
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I was looking at the cyperpunk genre, and I noticed that for dystopian futures, they always tend to do big, bad corporations controlling most of everything, with a mostly corrupt police force, and uncaring for the people at the bottom. No middle class, really.
I was thinking of switching it up; where the... |
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So I am creating an Elven sub-species (working name is Techno Elf), these are elves that split off from the rest of the Elven society some time in the past. The reason for the split being that they wanted to focus on technology and machinery, and so communicated and collaborated with Dwarven societies (s... |
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I'm designing a city built to take advantage of valuable mineral deposits in a large polar desert. The city is built around a Yellowstone-esque region of hot springs and geysers, where underground ice is melted by magma close to the surface. Water is easy; food is less so.
* Could chemosynthetic bacteria... |
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Basically, this is a setting in which artificial gravity generation is possible and can be confined to certain areas with different settings. There are maybe five human colonies on planets with near-Earth gravity (ie close enough to 1g as to make not much difference), but there are also human colonies on... |
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The idea of a metal-poor science-fiction/fantasy setting has fascinated me since I first encountered it in [Dark Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun), and learning about [Tekumel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9kumel) just deepened it. When it came to my own setting, I didn't want to do thi... |
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**Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers.
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## **Context**
The setting of this question is basically our world, with magical creatures hiding among us. They are from different races, and can be human-like (witches, [santas](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/23764/what-should-be-the-limitations-of-a-gift-generating-power?lq=1), [suc... |
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Imagine living in the [Roman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire) around 100 AD. The empire controls most of the known world! No foreign power could possibly defeat the empire! The Romans will be in charge forever!
... except we know that's not what happened—the empire declined and fell ap... |
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Let say a asteroid hit earth and you survived in a bomb shelter. How long would you have to stay in that bomb shelter before it was safe to leave it? How would earth look when you got out from the bomb shelter, would it be hotter or cooler? would there be still be tree and other plants? What else would b... |
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I read [on the cooking.stackexchange site](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/64452/is-it-true-that-all-salt-is-sea-salt/64453#64453) that all natural salt on Earth was created by seas and oceans, starting with primordial oceans four billion years ago. This got me thinking about my fictional ter... |
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As we all know, Santa loads his sleigh with gifts for millions of children around the world and sets about distributing them during the night of December 24/25. To make them all fit in his stylish truck-sized sleigh, he obviously uses the same compression technology that enables him to jimmy up and down ... |
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Humans lay road to gain fast access to distant places until aeroplane is invented, I would presume the mermaids living underwater can make use of the strong water current to get around the ocean quickly. The issue is unlike road these currents changes shape and direction frequently so how can the mermaid... |
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A group of people secede from a country, form their own, and gain many allies. Their allies and their original country's allies start fighting a worldwide war. (Fantasy setting, by the way.) A small but heavily fortified city-fortress is built. Eventually, most nations are destroyed - including that city... |
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In the [question asked by Jim2B](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/28594/3202) regarding the legal personhood of uploaded personalities, my answer came to the conclusion that uploaded personalities of people would be regarded as children of the uploaded person (until they could support themselves... |
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I'd like to have an advanced civilization that lives in a ring around their sun, but a ring planet just can't work. In this case, they are among densely agglomerated asteroids (with life support, there's no atmosphere or anything) about as far out as our first asteroid belt, and have built bridges, etc. ... |
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The picture above is a representation of a Methane Earth. I pulled it from [this Wikipedia article on alternative solvents](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Non-water_solvents).
Several questions deal with... |
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Most natural satellites in our Solar System are expected to contain fission furnaces at their cores, and some of these moons do have a striking resemblance to an asteroid. I'm wondering if we could establish a colony on an asteroid and harvest the "aster-thermal" energy (if there is a proper term for it)... |
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What would be more valuable in a post-apocalyptic world and/or more suitable to be used as currency: plastic or metal bottlecaps?
The Fallout video game series popularized the use of metal bottlecaps as a form of currency in a post-apocalyptic world as they are, supposedly, difficult to forge. However, w... |
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See [A city to last ten million years: Construction](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12266/a-city-to-last-ten-million-years-construction) for background.
Second question:
What would be the best choice of site on the planet's surface? Assume the planet is more or less Earthlike in its cl... |
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I am developing an antlered cat, and looking for some help determining the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of certain physical characteristics.
The world is earth-like, and this particular species is only found on one island nation.
The creature starts off very much like a cougar: 36 in to top ... |
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I would like to have a planet in which somehow it becomes necessary to harvest aurora for energy (and maybe matter if that's feasible).
The civilization of this planet is moderately advanced -- enough to have colonized other planets in its solar system, but not enough to have travel between stars.
Which... |
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Civilization progress has many dimensions, for example technological, moral/ethical, happiness/subjective quality of life, etc. For each such dimension we could state a purpose that reflects it, e.g.
* to obtain high technological advancement,
* to have high (average, minimal?) moral/ethical values of t... |
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Imagine a species that evolved on a planet where there was no metal (or not much) of any kind.
They, of course, discovered fire and were able to start building buildings and basic machinery from wood. Later their technology changed and became biology focused with a strong knowledge of DNA manipulation, ... |
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**In the case of a world-wide plague epidemic that'll trigger the near extinction of humanity, is it possible that a virus/disease has inconsistent symptoms so that people aren't aware that it's really the same plague until it's already spread or in the later stages?**
This is assuming that the plague e... |
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Edit: Originally I asked this question about "houses" in general, but several comments made it clear to me houses was too broad a scope. So I've edited this question to restrict it's scope to a certain type of dwelling, and I will ask further questions in series about other dwelling types in the future.
... |
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Imagine a space station orbiting a star.
The station is not orbiting a planet.
The station has cylinder shape and is orienting its side to the sunlight.
The station is rotating just like any [O'Neil Cylinder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder)
It is filled with water. Assume salt w... |
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In my world, there is a zombie pandemic that happens. The zombies are fast, but can be defeated by a large army. My world a little before the outbreak was close to having an Industrial Revolution. They had good agriculture, had a capitalist way of thinking, a system similar to the putting out system, and... |
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One of the more interesting facts about the biogeography of Hawaii is that mosquitoes were not always present; they only arrived in the early nineteenth century, as stowaways aboard oceangoing ships. The explanation for this is straightforward; Hawaii is not a splinter of a continent; it is a volcanic is... |
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I’m imagining a post-apocalyptic scenario as a thought experiment. It takes place 500 years after a nuclear war on the East Coast of what was the US, and is meant to roughly be a recreation of a high fantasy setting. I will lay out 5 prerequisites for what I will be defining as traditional fantasy:
**1. ... |
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For the longest time, I was unsure as to why the aliens in my story would have the anatomy they do; They were created through genetic engineering, so how they evolved is not an issue, but their anatomy is, quite frankly, not the most functional.
Now I've hit upon an idea: Their anatomy would not need to ... |
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In my setting, there is a massive crater that results from a divine apocalyptic event. Long story short, due to the sheer power contained within it, the water within the sea created by the crater is boiling or nearly boiling hot. There's not a natural origin for this.
I've heard that boiling wood will we... |
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For an RPG, I'm building a world that is the inverse of the fantasy world which contains ancient ruins and long-lost arcane secrets. This world will be home to the folks who built those first structures that will become ruins in future millennia, these are folks to first discover those arcane secrets, an... |
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What would a realistic space-dwelling humanoid species under these guidelines look like? It's for a setting I am working on. They are sentient and live on asteroids, typically converted into ships.
Rules:
1: Presence of a prehensile tail, to grab onto things.
2: Must be able to communicate to other aster... |
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So, I've got this setting. It's a supernatural post-apocalyptic story involving guys with superhuman abilities traveling across an America that's become a grid of 2x2 mile "squares" (technically pillars getting bigger going up and smaller towards the earth's core), each governed by a different supernatur... |
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[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3YGz6.jpg)
I like [aircraft with multiple wings stacked atop each other](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_(aeronautics)); in an alternate world (undergoing a simila... |
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I'm designing an alien creature that looks insectoid and had a question about compound eyes.
The creature is about human in size, maybe a little larger, but I'm wondering if there is a size limit on compound eyes?
I know with vertebrate eyes (camera-type eyes?) there is a limit as to how large the eye ca... |
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Quetzalcoatl is the main of the cultures from the center of Mexico, like mexicas, toltecas, teotihuacans and the maya equivalent Kukulkan, known by the popular culture as the feathered flying snake or just feathered snake.
<https://www.ancient.eu/trans/es/1-12086/quetzalcoatl/> (
My question is how you c... |
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Follow up to this question:
[What would prevent an eldritch deity from gaining the abilities of others that it absorbs?](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/188741/what-would-prevent-an-eldritch-deity-from-gaining-the-abilities-of-others-that-i?noredirect=1#comment583931_188741)
Nyarlathote... |
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In my world I need to create a city that permanently floats in the air. My idea was to create a sort of trading center where the dirigible-like airships in my world can dock and trade. Over the course of a few decades, people slowly started expanding the city ship by ship, building more permanent houses ... |
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Recently, I had an idea for a story in which a [vacuum metastability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum#Stability_and_instability_of_the_vacuum) event occurs.
Would it be feasible in any way for an advanced civilization to alter the universal constants to prevent this or save themselves from tha... |
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**Closed.** This question is [off-topic](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers.
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This question does not appear to be about worldbuilding, within the scope defined in the [help center](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help).
Closed 3 years ago.
[Improve this questio... |
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Let's say Santa got himself a new toy: a present delivery cannon. With this new cannon, he wants to deliver presents to children by shooting their presents from the cannon into their chimneys. Let's assume the cannon has 100% accuracy with a "present protection" feature, where presents shot from it can t... |
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My 4D world's equivalent of [Tiktaalik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik), the ancestor of all terrestrial endoskeletal animals, is a tetralaterally symmetric octopod with two limb girdles holding four limbs in the front and four limbs in the back. (Note that because this is in 4 dimensions, the p... |
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**This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information.
[Wik... |
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[Methanogenesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanogenesis) is among the most energy-dense forms of anaerobic respiration. Typically, it requires the environmental presence of hydrogen to reduce CO2; however, hydrogen can be generated from glucose in [hydrogenic fermentation](https://en.wikipedia.org/... |
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Say we have an intelligent species whose body plan is inspired by walking insects (ants, beetles, etc.) and reptiles (particularly lizards).
More specifically, let's say they have four legs (I think they'd have things a bit easier with six, so I'll ask the four-leg case, because if it's solvable, six le... |
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**This question already has answers here**:
[Why might humans and aliens be able to produce viable offspring? [closed]](/questions/122130/why-might-humans-and-aliens-be-able-to-produce-viable-offspring)
(6 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I had an idea for a planet which, millions of years ago, was ac... |
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My story takes place in a medieval/fantasy setting. The main part plays out on a locked-off island with a fairly uniform population I'd call Asian to keep this question to the point (look Asian and have those genetics, but of course there is no Asian continent nor culture in that world). They keep to the... |
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**This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information.
An i... |
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I am currently working an a magic system that involves Photokinesis. However, I am having difficulty understanding its limits and its capabilities.
[Visual example](https://i.stack.imgur.com/rB89A.jpg)
The best definition for this type of magic comes from [Fandom](https://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Ligh... |
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I see a lot of historical and fictional illustrations of walls that do not have wall walks. My understanding of medieval tactics is largely based on cinema and *some* wikipedia, so as far as I know a wall is mostly only good for standing on top of, to fend off attackers using ladders. In my mind, when I ... |
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Would it be possible for a human to survive on a diet of modified yeast as seen in many fictional stories? Not necessarily be able to get perfect nutrition from, or live healthily on, but simply live off of.
This is usually some kind of raw yeast grown off of sewage or some such. An example would be Dol... |
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So on a planet with a chlorine based atmosphere and only a small amount of oxygen, here is my proposed mechanism for chlorine based photosynthesis.
Carbon tetrachloride, since it is a liquid at 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 23 degrees Celsius, needs to be absorbed through the soil mostly though some does com... |
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**This question already has answers here**:
[Is a planet with a primarily reddish/pinkish sky a plausible place for humans to live on?](/questions/42426/is-a-planet-with-a-primarily-reddish-pinkish-sky-a-plausible-place-for-humans-to)
(2 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I recently came across a planet... |
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I'm attempting to create a world that has very brutal, hard swinging weather and environments, leaving much of the planet desert-like. The world I've designed is a moon of a gas giant.
## The Parent Planet
This planet is a gas giant orbiting a sun smaller and cooler than our own. It's closer than the gol... |
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So I've been working on a low magic world where magic is actually just another form of energy that can be actualized, similar to alchemy in Full Metal Alchemist. Although development has taken a different course in this world, it resembles a late middle age to pre-industrial age period in time.
This wor... |
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In the National Geographic mini-series *Extraterrestrial* or *Alien Worlds*, they featured a hypothetical gas giant moon called the Blue Moon. The Blue Moon orbits a binary star, has a very dense atmosphere with lots of carbon dioxide and oxygen, and a slightly lower gravity than Earth.
The Blue Moon's l... |
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I am designing a solar system, with the first planet located very close to the parent star. This planet has become tidally locked to the star. Is it possible to have a molten lava ocean on the side that is facing the sun?
What would the conditions be like for on the other (solid) side of the planet?
Coul... |
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Imagine a large chunk of land about half the size of the size of the United States cracked away from the main landmass and floated up into the sky for as high as a mountain (say, 2,800 meters, not as high as mount Everest or some of the highest ones so the condition would still be inhabitable). The conti... |
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More posts from this thread are here:
[Metal-Feathered Macaw Viability Part 1: How Can It Fly?](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/115491)
# Info
See [this previous question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/115491) to learn about the premise.
We now know, via [this amazing answer](https:... |
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Previous parts here:
[Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/106292/creating-a-scientificly-semi-valid-super-soldier-part-1-skeleton)
[Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system](https://wor... |
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Inspired (loosely) by societies like the Gunditjmara and natives of the Pacific Northwest, I always have envisioned a system of aquaculture for one of my concultures, though agricultural studies are hardly my forte, so I figure I should make sure that my system is feasible, and that there are no glaring ... |
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Ok
I have a moon, or cored out moon, that is a generation ship. I really do: I built it by mining out one of the rock/ice moons around my solar systems gas giants (not earth's solar system). Its diameter varies but it's roughly 1,390 km from pole to pole and 1,470 km at the equator. But it has this kind ... |
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I'm really in doubt if a fusion thruster could be used inside a planet (populated places). As i saw in the TV show "The Expanse", their fusion engines are really, really hot, hotter than the surface of the Sun and they can't use it close to stations and on planets. So i ask: in a VTOL spaceship that uses... |
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In a large varied environment where strong winds are the norm and every few weeks or so a huge hurricane sweeps through, how would large land animals (horse- to elephant-sized) evolve to cope?
I understand palm trees to be well adapted to hurricanes; roots that anchor them into the ground, strong but fle... |
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I was reading [a question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/84040/silica-aerogel-maze) and had a follow-up question with a story idea that I'd like to develop more fully.
The idea is a HUGE maze, thousands (or more) of square miles, that has small clearings created in it with magical hap... |
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A pharmaceutical company begins drug trials of a pill that they believe can activate a previously understudied and widely unknown region of the brain. The trial begins and when the first participants take the pill, there's no obvious changes. The company decides they need to be subjected to intense physi... |
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So I wanted to give the players a reason to eventually go to the moon. But this is a fantasy setting, so having the moon just be a big rock floating in space would just be so.... blasé. So I came up with a system where the moon is a giant battery storing up solar energy until it expends it on the night o... |
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Species X is unique in several ways.
They were (the history lost to their people) genetically engineered originally, and appear as hairless humans of (intentionally) non-human looking skin of various grays, blues, and purples. They cannot reproduce, and depend on growing new members of their species arti... |
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**Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers.
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Given a "parallel" Earth-like world with 9 days to our own 7 days (ie, each day is around 18 hours, 40 minutes), what other differences would one expect/require to be otherwise "normal" and habitable?
Would such a world necessarily need to be of different diameter, mass, orbital distance, etc? Or could o... |
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If all the fresh water were at least 25% deuterium, would humans be able to survive?
Would there be significant other detrimental side effects to human physiology as a result?
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It depends.
Heavy water proves toxic to human cells [at levels ~20% of a human's body weight](https://www.ncbi.nlm.n... |
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## Some Details
Suppose an Earth-like world with the following changes:
* Atmosphere: 67% nitrogen, 31% oxygen, 2% other
* Average surface temperature: 16.7° C (62° F)
* Day/night cycle: 20 hours
* Gravity: 0.86 g
This world is inhabited by [genetically diverse creatures](https://worldbuilding.stackexcha... |
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On Earth, the presence of tides due to the Sun and Moon influence certain currents and other movements of water. This in turn leads to different forms of erosion, which can transform a landscape.
I'm working on a moon that's tidally locked to a planet - pretty much identical to the Earth-Moon system, exc... |
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**Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers.
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Closed 3 years ago.
[Improve this question](/pos... |
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The village background:
* It is located at an elevation of 2,119 m (about 6,952 feet) above sea level with a population of about 1,800.
* It has a continental climate with Oceanic influence. Summers are
moderately hot and winters are very cold and long.
* Night temperatures tend to be below freezing poin... |
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What is the smallest set of different crops a (vegan) human population could grow to sustain itself?
We'll assume they have an ideal environment, where anything and everything can grow and the technology to grow aquatic plants.
It can be anything from baobab fruits to micro-algaes.
My first list contains... |
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My story setting's group of AIs and brain-uploaded humans wants to colonize space. They have an advantage over us, meat humans, because they don't need conventional life support (air, water, sewage treatment, food...) and are as durable as a computer can be made. Mentally they're happy with a VR environm... |
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The ***Gerontocracy of the Favored*** has ruled essentially the entirety of the Known World for countless generations.
The Old Favored might be men, might be machines, or some strange combination thereof. It is unclear, and none can venture into their High Towers and ascend their [Yelevators](https://en... |
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**This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information.
Woul... |
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I'm trying to write hack-ish (As in, I'm a hack) science fiction that is realistic except where it is inconvenient to me. That being said, animals are not an area I want to handwave. I want the animals on a planet humans colonize to fall under different categories than those of Earth. I've got some stuff... |
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Following this [question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12552/cosmic-background-radiation-in-the-past), I had additional question of habitability.
Assuming that life could exist on planet formed roughly twelve billion years ago, allowing complex life to exist as of seven billion years... |
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This question is inspired by book [The Day of the triffids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Triffids) and [this question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/11170/what-could-kill-all-vegetation-in-an-area-and-then-stop-it-from-growing-back)
Russia and USA have never been really... |
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I have got a fictional universe, where a humanoid lifeform evolved on earth not from apes, but from bears. The humanoid bears are like humans; they walk on their legs only, wear clothing, have various languages and civilizations; the only thing is that they still have snouts like bears have and still hav... |
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What ethical/legal implications would there be if we invented a technology to make it possible to communicate intelligibly with some (or all) animals?
The constraints on this technology would make it such that it is easier to communicate with animals that have brains more similar to human brains -- but ... |
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