Questions tagged [chemistry]
For questions that have to do with chemistry, chemical reactions be they biological or artificial, or the industrial processes of chemistry.
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Possibility of anachronistic fossils due to time travel
In my story, I have a character who travels back in time to Africa just after the Youngest Toba supereruption, about 74,000 years ago in order to collect genetic samples from the human survivors at ...
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How do you make a metallic bonded compound stay liquid? Necessary for flying vehicles [closed]
I have a fuel that has a lot of metallic bonds but I need it as a liquid to be used in engines. Otherwise I have to figure out how to use a solid fuel in the air non-rocket style. It reacts with water ...
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Can magnetic fields be used to either strengthen or weaken chemical bonds? [closed]
My understanding is that magnetic fields compress atoms slightly. Could this conceivably be used in combination with certain substances with very specific properties to strengthen them in the presence ...
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What is the stability of this compound? I'm not a chemist
I want to make a McGuffin of sorts, a compound called BAP. Its slang as fuel. It's composition is BiAtPu. Would I need to add elements to make it stable? (If I can't make it stable, I'll need to not ...
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Possible reactions for Artillery Plants?
I am looking for a chemical reaction which can generate a lot of Gas in a short period of time, on the order of seconds, to build up pressure and allow a plant to propel a seed like projectile.
The ...
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How to create three new chemical elements? [closed]
I'm trying to create a universe with 3 new chemical elements. I want them to be as realistic as possible but I'm not a chemist, so I need some help. I need to create:
A gold coloured element
Three ...
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Is this ocean-planet stable?
I'm building a cold, water-based ocean-planet for my current setting, its temperature being below 0°c at all times and in all of its regions. Even despite the freezing temperatures, the planet's ...
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Artificially-created diamond 'windows' for spacecraft
In the past I've entertained the notion of space stations and spaceships having window panes or transparent viewing surfaces made from laboratory-created diamonds, but a recent answer to a different ...
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All arsenic not in the ground is magically removed. What effect would that have?
The land of Koyokuni has been depopulated of people and their domesticated animals for many years, and had been sown with ergot spores, venomous insects, large, aggressive venomous birds and even ...
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The miraculous substance of carrangan: can it exist, and what does it change about its planet of origin?
First, this account is a replacement for my old one, Jobah_HigherMind, because I forgot the password after being inactive for four months. But I’m moving away from Algennon questions, at least for now,...
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Which hypergolic compounds are best suited for dragon fire?
I'm looking for input from chemists, biochemists, and those familiar with rocket fuel propellants. I'm a fantasy world builder, but that doesn't mean everything in my fantasy world is excluded from ...
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How Do I Contain Hydrogen Gas With Pre-Modern Technology?
I finally figured out how my alchemy system works. The problem is, when my characters perform alchemy, they release loads of hydrogen gas. Why? Well, basically, they will take an object and cause ...
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Fire Analogue on Hydrogen Methane atmosphere Planet
Okay to summarize I have a planet with an approximate atmosphere of 44% nitrogen gas, 30% hydrogen gas, 23% methane and 3% other trace gases. I am working on an intelligent alien race on this planet ...
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All this salt, and it's useless! Why?
Once upon time, there was a shallow inland sea, leftover meltwater from a previous ice age trapped because of nearby mountain ranges. The arid climate with almost no rain and weak flow to and from the ...
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How does this microbe recognize specific chemical patterns?
This species of bacteria is electroreceptive, and when it receives an input pattern of electric spikes, it can “translate” that input pattern into a pattern of chemical signals internally via its ...
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What would the consequences of abusing my fictional drug be? [closed]
In this world there exists a potent psychogenic drug named Soma(lifted from Brave New World because I like the name and vibe).
The effects of the drug are thus.
In small doses the drug ‘softens’ the ...
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A Chemical Formula for a fictional Room Temperature Superconductor
I am working on a Hard Sci-Fi novel. In this novel Humanity has set up a drilling operation on the fictional exoplanet Hela. They are drilling for Trivesene, which is an Oil like viscus organic ...
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How can a plant have pure graphite cell walls instead of cellulose?
So like, how could a plant extract carbon out of other organic molecules and make their cell walls out of graphite instead of cellulose?
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How could a remote controlled bacterium work?
How could a radiowave controlled remote-controlled bacterium be possible?
Criteria:
The receiver for the radiowaves would not be bigger than the bacterium (which is the size of a cyanobacterium)
The ...
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Can cells and other materials be controlled electromagnetically
I'm trying to make a creature with a specialized organ that can be controlled telekinetically with cellular precision. Basically the creature would have a specialized organ connected to the brain that ...
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Can just heat be used to power ATP production?
I want to have some lifeforms that live around and in hot environments and absorb the heat around them to produce ATP without using any other energy sources. Is this possible? How can this be done? ...
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Reductive instead of oxidative based metabolism
Is it possible to have a cellular metabolism based on reduction instead of oxidation? All known life currently uses some sort of oxidation in cellular respiration, either from oxygen or from oxidizing ...
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What would be the fastest way to generate heat energy for damage?
For a suit of armour to deal damage via the hands/palms/claws primarily as an antihero/vigilante gimmick. Now thinking around ~2000°C (3632°F) (Containment is another question) but I need it hot ...
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On a planet whose waters are super rich in iron, could life forms use the iron as a basis for their skeletons?
One of my planets has surface waters that are incredibly rich in oxidized iron, and I was intrigued by the possibility of alternate materials for bones when I came across Stephen Gillett's Clorox ...
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How would an animal produce oil that creates a purple flame when burned?
In a short story I'm writing, a non-tropical island nation has an economy centered around selling an oil made from a particular animal. The oil is special because it produces a light purple flame when ...
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What atmospheric conditions would prevent sound from traveling more than a short distance?
My story has an alien planet with an oxygen-based atmosphere about twice as dense as Earth’s. When on the planet, sound attenuation is much more rapid, so much that any noise more than fifty feet away ...
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How would ammonia affect an otherwise breathable atmosphere? [duplicate]
I'm looking into an otherwise breathable but dense Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere, that happens to have 0.5-1% Ammonia in it - it roughly comes out to around 0.02 atm for Partial Pressure in total.
For ...
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Why would humans carry around live plants in a post-apocalyptic world?
A while ago I saw this brilliant 3d render of a post-apocalyptic world in which a human carries around a live plant in a capsule, connected to the plant via a respirator:
(credit: Stephen Grimm via ...
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How would civilization differ if silicate glass wasn't so useful? [closed]
(This is a "hard sci-fi" chemistry question.)
Silicate glass is malleable when hot, stiff at human-compatible temperatures, transparent, and chemically inert. It's cheap and easy to make, ...
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Alternate Bullet Propellants [closed]
For my world, I want there to be many types of ammunition due to the world being an apocalyptic-anarchy kinda thing. Mostly land combat, little to no spacecrafts or vehicles. Anyone know any good ones?...
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What are most hydrogen-dense materials that a pre-electric civilization could produce? [closed]
Context
My world has an 'unobtanium' strategic resource that is an alternate form of hydrogen. When atoms of this hydrogen is embedded in a rotor, they generate a field force that pushes against the ...
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How would a venom that melts organic substances work?
I'm having trouble finding out how this venom would work with one of my dragon characters. The venom is sprayed out of 2 long front fangs- like a snake, and the venom is acidic and melts through any ...
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What's stopping other rock layers from creating a karst-like landscape?
Context
I've reread a part of a book about geochemistry and it reminded me that just about any element can dissolve in water if the pH is right. Later an examples of aluminium or iron dissolving en ...
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Could fire use chemicals other than oxygen as fuel?
Could "fire" exist on a planet that has no oxygen in its atmosphere? If it was using some other chemical as fuel, how would that effect its physical properties, color/appearance, temperature,...
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Can you use plants as substitute for missing metals/elements?
Say a person stranded in time, somewhere in a forest wants to make brass.
He has copper, but not zinc, so he tosses a bunch of zinc-rich beans and nuts in the smelting pot with copper and prays to god ...
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Plausibility of a planetary ocean containing both $H_2O$ and a form of potassium?
To give a bit of context, I'm trying to tackle a challenge I set out for myself in writing up a speculative biosphere wherein complex land life emerges, without the advent of photosynthesis at all. As ...
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Turning possible a gigantic rock in the sky (sci-fi and magic)
Ok, we have magic to solve all my problems but I want to find if I can solve this "the most cientific possible".
I have a world that turns out to be the earth but in a post-apocalyptic ...
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planet atmospheric composition
I am been making an alien planet for my xenobiology project, this planet would have an atmospheric pressure of 1.5 atm and it would be composed of the following gases:
Nitrogen: 83.7%
Oxygen: 10.4%
...
2
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1
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Would Liquid CO2 form a Separate Layer Beneath the Ocean?
In the series of stories that I'm writing, I have a star system with one of its outer planets being a world with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, similar to venus, but it's far enough out to be room ...
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Could a planet have oceans of heavy water? [duplicate]
Heavy water, or deuterium oxide, is a form of water where the hydrogen atoms contain a proton and a neutron, rather than just a proton as in “normal water”. It is toxic to earth life but luckily, on ...
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How hard is it to ruin the Earth permanently?
Your average Invading Alien Species shows up and plans to invade Earth. They are Default Dumb Movie Aliens and don't have nanotech, AI, space habitats, diplomatic abilities, self-replicating factories,...
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If humans had no access to gunpowder, what else would they use to power guns?
In my setting there's a lack of sulfur, simply put. Don't ask for the specifications, just assume that whatever amount there is, it is likely better off used in dietary supplements for the shortage of ...
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Could bioengineered trees grow high explosives?
The setting I'm trying to develop is a post-apocalyptic partial Dyson Swarm. The world has very advanced AI and one of those developed the system as a caretaker god inhabiting the star. It has gone ...
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Converting mars’ atmosphere to water
So, I have come to the decision that there is no one easy way to bring water to Mars. So, in light of that, i have decided on several methods which will be used simultaneously, and which I hope will ...
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Helium-Neon impossible compound
What would need to happen in order to make a compound with neon and helium? We know it's impossible, but super hypothetically if we could do magic and fuse them together, how would that look like? ...
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What fluids would be better than water for steam power?
I was wondering what it'd take for a fluid to be more efficient than water for steam engines.
My current idea is a fictional fluid with three properties: 1) It boils at 80C, thus requiring less fuel/...
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Poisonous gases that force lifeforms to live on higher altitudes
I have been brainstorming for my sci-fi world building project and liked the idea of having a planet where there persisted a heavy poisonous gas over the majority of the land that would force almost ...
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Could synthetic pheromones affect female fertility?
In a previous post, I asked what chemical agent can cause both nervous and reproductive effects.
The chemical agent in question should have the potential to be fatal and preferably exert its effects ...
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Fuel for vehicles in an abruptly abandoned world
The scenario: in September 1985, almost everyone abruptly disappears. Humans, domestic animals, carried/worn possessions, and vehicles currently in motion, vanish, while everything else stays as it ...
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What are good heat-resistant materials for writing a self-immolating spellbook?
The magic in question operates on a magical language of runes that give off a constant heat. When the runes are "at rest" (as in, nobody is reading them) the heat is very mild but warms up ...
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