Questions tagged [science-based]
For questions that require plausible (better than suspension-of-disbelief) answers based on Real World science that are not necessarily constrained to the known limits of Real World science. Contrast with the hard-science, science-fiction and internal-consistency tags. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, hard-science, or internal-consistency tags.
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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 would you justify technological advancement both digital and cybernetic without the risks of orwellian controls? [closed]
Let's just say these past few years, I've been reading SciFi Dystopia fiction in which simply put. All computers and phones and anything digital, makes it so that the users are easily tracked, hacked ...
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How to survive a helicopter crash using alien biotechnology?
In the near-future, in a war between aliens and humans, the aliens hatch a plan to seemingly assassinate a human leader (on Earth), but make it look like it was done by other humans. They have it ...
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What would flora and fauna look in a world with a denser atmosphere? [closed]
Update - Ok to be more specific how would a denser atmosphere affect the terrestrial vegetation in this planet? For starters in Earth we can very broadly say we have 4 types vegetation
Grasses - ...
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Could alkaline digestive system work?
So a human digestive system is generally acidic, especially at the stomach part, when it goes down to even 1.5 pH. Similar things must be happening in other mammals and to an extent, probably in all ...
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Is a world laser possible?
Right now, I am developing a weapon of mass destruction dubbed 'The World Laser'. Basically, the antagonist is trying to destroy the world completely by cutting it in half in a singular motion using a ...
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What would Julius Caesar think about the development of AI? [closed]
Would the triumvirate use it to his advantage? Would've it be used in Rome for example counting the census? I've been looking for sources around this topic and I've found nothing thus far.
Thank you.
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What types of materials would be generated by a lava monster that has been cooled down rapidly?
I want to create a magma slime, which has a magical vulnerability to being cooled down and turns to rock easily (like when hit by a water or an ice spell). This rock can then be shattered to gather ...
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What parts of the human brain can a truth serum modify to prevent lying?
As I mentioned in a previous question, I am writing an alternate history story with many different countries by the time 2023 rolls around. Vitruvia is one such country that runs many experiments and ...
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How many planets can fit inside a Habitable Zone? [duplicate]
I have this idea of putting dozens of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. We know from the TRAPPIST-system that it's possible for two terrestrial, Earth-sized planets to come ...
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Are Liquid Brains Possible or Viable?
I'm designing an alien species roughly based on starfish. Starfish in the real world don't have brains or blood, they just let seawater run their nervous and circulatory systems, but I figure a ...
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What kind of environment would lead to the development of traits typical of fantasy races? [closed]
I'm not actively working on my world, but I'm currently thinking about races for it. I want this world to seem like a typical fantasy world at first glance, but have scientific reasons behind it. So, ...
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How could entropy control go wrong? [closed]
The magic system of my story works by either increasing or decreasing entropy with the decrease requiring a specific spot ex. dust collecting into a concentrated point or the increase requiring an ...
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How much clothing could one cut through with a chainsaw before it stalled, the chain broke, or some other disastrous thing happened? [closed]
The worldbuilding context is that I have a character who is in a terrible urban-fantasy situation, and is led somewhere where there is something he could use to defend himself with. It's unfortunately ...
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How might heat management in a large hab dome work?
I hope this is more focused D:
Setup; Hela is a exoplanet in the fictional Eurydice system, about 4 Ly from Earth. The exoplanet is significantly younger than Earth, and life on her is in a late ...
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What's the maximum mass for an Iron Planet to have a magnetosphere like Mercury's?
I'm designing an iron planet which migrated into its habitable zone. Basic research told me iron planets cool off too quickly to have a magnetic field, so initially I was looking for ways native life ...
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How would you get a ship out of a gravity well?
Context
I'm helping a friend with a hard sci-fi story and we ran into an issue. In this setting the technology for absurdly powerful and efficient fusion drives which seem not to have heat managment ...
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Can a device that causes memory loss be created with near-modern technology?
I am creating an alternate history world that leads to modern Earth having many different nations & cultures than it has in real life. One country is big on funding many extreme experiments to ...
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How would future humans be able to evolve large heads? [duplicate]
In my story there are future humans that managed to build a time machine and for research purposes decided to travel back in time to change past events from taking place. These future humans have a ...
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Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers...in atmosphere
Based of a conversation with @Starfish Prime regarding the answers from this question here.
In short, while the question itself had a satisfactory answer with it being that pulse lasers would ...
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How heavy does a "city" for two thousand people need to be?
This question is inspired by Mortal Engines, but I imagine something more feasible. The original question I wanted to ask was "How to keep a city in the air?", but I figured out there is ...
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Moving Arrows to Supersonic Speeds
In a sci-fi world that I am making, an infantry held launcher is one of the many weapons developed to counter increasingly tough armor protection, brought on by the advent of advanced materials and ...
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What would a rough estimate of the global climate of an earth be like if lit by a geosynchronous ring instead of a point source?
Welcome to fantasy earth: like Earth in all the same ways, with the exception that the sun you know has been replaced with a ring you don't.
What would the climate of Earth be if the sun was replaced ...
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What considerations would have to be made for a spacecraft with minimal-to-no digital computers on board?
I'm writing a sci-fi book where the main method of travel involves collapsing a star into a black hole by putting a satellite equipped with some sort of handwaving mechanism into orbit around the star....
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How would a planet's surface be younger than the planet itself? [closed]
Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, is 4.5 billion years old (like Earth.) However, its surface is only 20-180 million years old. What could lead to a planet/moon's surface being younger than the planet/...
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Landscape of Indefinitely Old Earth
If we somehow fix the Sun's luminosity indefinitely at current levels, stabilize the Moon's orbit so that it no longer drifts away, and match the solar tides precisely with lunar tides so Earth's ...
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Formula for determining maximum flight speed of superpowered individuals
I would like to be able to roughly determine the maximum horizontal flight speed of any superpowered individual using only the maximum acceleration that person can produce. To do this, I will need a ...
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Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers
How well can a thermal superconductor protect against pulse lasers?
First off, what is a thermal superconductor? It is a material that has a theoretical infinite thermal conductivity, similar to what ...
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Is There a Lower Limit on the Size of Fusion Reactor?
It would be really cool if you could build cybernetic arms with incredible strength, power coil guns with a man portable unit, or use power armor for extended combat. One of the ways this is ...
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What Could You Learn From Someone Else's Persperation and Exhalation Using Nanites and Smart Sensors?
Several sources suggest that "smart dust" could be used to make observations about someone's health and the environment around you.
Here are some sources that suggest you could make ...
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How bullet resistant would a person be who is 80 times more durable than a regular human?
The tensile, shear and compressive strength of all their tissues, including bone, skin, muscle, etc., is multiplied by a factor of 80. They are also very buff and so have a large body volume.
How ...
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How to increase the structural integrity of comets (for the purpose of moving them)?
Suppose there is a comet of radius 500m made of mostly ice, with the rest being rock, dust, and other frozen gases. The comet is being hollowed out in order to use the water as reaction mass (giving ...
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How would a balloon-like plant function?
I've been thinking about a floating and photosynthesizing plant, which would either float due to trapped light gasses, or something else that has a very low density. I'm thinking of a plant roughly in ...
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How reasonable is my hypothesis regarding ring-tailed orthostatic bipeds?
So, in my process of designing humanoid/humanesque sapient aliens, I often find myself wanting to have a species which are orthostatic (upright) bipeds like humans but which nonetheless have long ...
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How many miles of subterranean caverns could exist unknown to science?
In a setting I'm working on, a creepy fungus-based ecosystem exists in a cave network below the Earth's surface.
I don't know how/if this is an answerable question, but -- how many miles (I don't need ...
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What composition of atmosphere would work with CO2 best? [closed]
I'm working on a solar system where there is a planet with a red-ish atmosphere, due to it mainly being composed of CO2. I know CO2 doesn't react with many chemicals and is pretty dull, molecule-wise. ...
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What industrial facilities are needed to support a largely self sufficient interstellar mining operation? [closed]
Setup
A while ago I asked a question concerning a plausible Room Temperature Superconductor. This question is about the on site industry needed to support a significant extraction and logistics afford....
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Is my alien foot design viable for a compromise between arboreality and cursoriality?
I keep trying to design humanoid and humanesque sapient aliens, but I often run into issues with the feet; In an orthostatic biped, an enlarged first toe (big toe) is probably essential to maintain ...
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Internal Mass Driver Engines in Cislunar Space
An internal mass driver engine uses electrical power to accelerate reaction mass in a mass driver and to accelerate a spacecraft that way. Some designs assume relatively large exhaust particles (dust ...
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Are stainless steel railway tracks worth it?
In How long would it take unused railroad rails to corrode below usability?, we are asked how long railway tracks would last, and in my answer, I show that while ordinary steel railway tracks are ...
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Are My Ocean Currents Realistic for a Supercontinent?
I followed tutorials online and drew out my ocean currents. However I don’t have a strong grasp on the concept.
My world is primarily Earth-like with a retrograde spin and an axial tilt of 174 degrees....
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Solar Flux required to boil oceans?
What amount of stellar flux that a planet receives is required to boil away all oceans on said planet? We're thinking of Q🜨 (Earth = 1.00 Q🜨). For comparison: Venus ~ 1.93 Q🜨, Mercury ~ 6.57 Q🜨, ...
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How long would someone last in excruciating pain while assisted by chemicals?
My setting is just like the real world, except for a twisted Excess God. Who demands rituals to exacerbate its Worshipers feelings, which he in turn feeds on.
There's just a problem, these rituals are ...
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Very large orbit binary/trinary star systems
In my universe, Ancient Aliens once visited Earth with consequences.1 At that time they left instructions2 that 5,000 years3 in the future something would happen.4 The instructions left behind a ...
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Is it feasible to kiln-dry timber in the same kiln that is used to fire ceramics?
In the story I'm writing, my modern-day characters have the need to produce a great quantity of bricks in a relatively primitive setting and society, equivalent to ancient Sumeria. They have access ...
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Definite pitch designs only, what musical instrument and class of musical instruments would be easiest to design if the world reset?
I saw a couple other threads with slightly similar questions. But I want to stress with this one, that the focus is what instrument and instrument family would be the easiest to build anywhere in the ...
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What astronomical situation could account for the PERCEPTION of a very erratic day / night cycle for a planetbound population with limited science?
I would like to create a world that is at a roughly medieval level of scientific understanding and which - as far as it appears to the inhabitants of that world - has a highly erratic day and night ...
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How expensive to take 80% of plastics out the ocean?
Suppose that all the world would work together to take plastic out of the ocean. Here I include microplastics, which are much harder to remove.
How expensive would it be to remove 80% (in wheight) of ...
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Topology of an exotic wormhole network?
I have a setting in which there are nine planets in star systems scattered across the galaxy, linked together by some being or intelligence capable of manipulating spacetime. The current inhabitants ...
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How to find visibility of stars given a certain moon brightness
How would you be able to calculate what magnitude of stars would be visible given a certain brightness of the moon. As I know that the visibility of stars are based on their compared magnitude to a ...
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