All Questions

Included is a picture of my climate map and several perspectives of a paper model I made of the planet. The ocean covers over half the planet, which is rather small. It has nearly no tilt, and 2 moons;...

I have a planet circling an M-Class star (M3/M4). I'm trying to figure out what the effects of flaring on the planet's biosphere might be. Background: As some of you may know, M-class stars are ...

I have seen similar questions about groundhog day but they were about either a single unique groundhog day or a permanent one. In this case, each day may or may not repeat. There are no limits so ...

Assume that I have some way to introduce nutrients into the body of a healthy human but I do not have any method of changing their biology. No surgical procedures nor special "drugs" that would affect ...

So, the strongest of my current characters is a happy little cloud, that's compromised of nanomachines (well, not exactly nano, it's well in the micro prefix, but individual parts obviously require ...

I am working on developing a campaign setting/world history for something akin to Dungeons and Dragons so medium/high fantasy magic with a medieval flavor. I am trying to get a grasp on expected ...

Imagine a species in which the ego never developed. There is no self-direction. This species is always making noise, however, and it is through this noise that the society itself experiences the ...

On the Atomic Rockets site, there is a series of handy tables, the first of which is aptly named "The Boom Table", providing examples for a wide range of energy releases (in both Joules and TNT ...

For plot reasons, I need there to be global-ish peace by the 1700's. Obviously, the easiest and best way to do this, is union under the system of Pax Romana. However, at this particular time (about ...

In the far future, man is trying to build a small colony in the asteroid belt - on one of the bigger asteroids. All the materials are to be mined from asteroids, and it is assumed the colony will have ...

In a fantasy world I have planned, I wanted one of the nomadic groups to live on a frozen steppe. They would primarily subsist by herding and domesticating mammoths. Would mammoths be comparable to, ...

This series will focus on a Worldkillers: a group of interstellar outlaws who specialize in destroying worlds. Each question has the objective to explore a different way to kill a planet - a word ...

Researching for a science fiction novel. My character loves math + I have dyscalculia = Problem. Therefore, I need your help. In my story, there are aliens we can see, but we can't hear or touch. ...

This question is in the same context (the same world) proposed by Steven L. Gillett in his book: "World-building". And actually there have been some other questions about this same chlorinated world. ...

Preface: This is a very abstract question since it really would depend on the worldbuilder, and the type of setting they are trying to build. In Established Works In works such as Lord of the Rings, ...

When one hears the name "Beringia", we most often think the land bridge that formed as a result of a drop in sea levels during the Pleistocene, resulting in a connection between Alaska and Russia. But ...

Story-based background (not essential for question) The Helawi live at the top of a small plateau with steep cliffs all around. There is a carved stairway from top to bottom that allows only one ...

I have an idea for an encounter in my world that goes like this... A weary group of adventurers are trekking through a great ancient forest. This forest is avoided by most due to strange tales of ...

Take a planet like Gliese 1214 B, which has no land, an ocean 100s of kilometres deep and a seabed of Ice VII. For the purposes of the question, let's assume that the pressure and/or temperature near ...

...kill every protohuman who tries to leave the African continent. This comment made me think about one question. Suppose you have robot guards, like futuristic lasers, who just shoot at any landing ...

I have seen many science fiction movies that depict traveling in space through wormholes. The appearance though, and the time it takes to cross a wormhole, tends to vary: • On one hand, we have the ...

I'm interested in the introduction of bacteria on Mars. If a small base were set up with attempts to maintain some sort of sterilisation protocols, but all the humans died on that base a) what would ...

Is it possible for these pulse jet helicopters to be made into the size of an apache or perhaps the chinook? And how long would they stay airborne?

When you create a religion, organization, or any other object within your world, can related materials be useful for realizing the world? For example: If you create a religion, will an excerpt of a ...

Following the Schwarzschild metric, we could consider that a white hole=black hole with no angular momentum (no spin?) or electric charge. Would be enough to slow down a black hole and somehow remove ...

My heroine has been stabbed - run through the abdomen by a foot-long dagger - and is bleeding to death. She is currently crawling toward her salvation through a very cold place. She is magically ...

In my world, a small population on an isolated island were bitten by radioactive electric eels while fishing. I read that the eels can send out carefully timed signals through their nervous systems ...

There is a space ship, flying from planet to planet for multiple years. It is a science vessel, so, once they reach a planet, they do research. But what do they do if they are in transit between ...

I'm designing a world with advanced life forms that use a sulphur-based biochemistry (see this link for context). I would like to create a carbon cycle analogous to Earth, where: Photosynthesis ...

In the society I am building it is illegal for a government official to lie (this isn't a reaction to real world politics; I've been building this world for a while), while speaking/acting as ...

This question is completely just for fun! :) So in one of my classes, some boys on an another table were debating whether you could toast a marshmallow for smores using a nuclear blast from a nuclear ...

If the earth suddenly had a new axis of rotation (due to catastrophic events - humor me), would the tendency be for it’s new axis to align itself perpendicularly to its orbital plane over time? For ...

The Question How would someone scientifically emulate Spider-Man powers without altering the human genes? The Limits No genetic engineering (except on spiders for their silk) Technology level is ...

Over 99% of the transcontinental internet traffic goes through a network of 280 sets of undersea cables. How vulnerable are these to deliberate sabotage by the major powers? I'd rather not focus ...

(Related to Human Dragonfly wings) Context The mutant thread is back. For more context, see my previous questions. One of my character is a "subtle" mutant (no outward sign) that has an affinity ...

How this affects the economy of the big tech industries like factories and the media like radio stations and television? What are the effects that this brings in the life of normal people?

First off assume that the technology is roughly that of the High Medieval age circa 1100 AD. The combatants are assumed to be humans in this case adapted to life underground after around 3000 yrs of ...

A Snowball Earth is a global condition (which may have occurred many times) in which the temperature everywhere on the surface was, for extended periods (up to tens of millions of years), below the ...

Set in the near future, robots and mankind coexist amicably due to the great technological advancement in robotics and artificial intelligence. They are everywhere and some took a human form. All of ...

Terraforming and maintaining a biosphere suitable for humans is tough, but no worries, Protogon is here! Collaborating with Providence, our scientists have created Hygiea, a series of rapidly growing ...

The human race is divided into two variants: male and female. The former is generally more dominant physically due to its size, making them bigger, stronger, and faster. They are predisposed to being ...

So I have a character in a fantasy setting who is basically a human for the most part in terms of physical limits. They do have slightly stronger bone structure and greater endurance, along with ...

Background I'm developing 6 to 10 sapient alien races for a short story. Basic Story Setting The short story takes place in the Milky Way sometime in the next 1000 years. These races will be at ...

The most popular type of stars are red dwarves, which regrettably tend to be flare stars. Yes, I know that geomagnetic storms and power lines do not like each other. Technology level: More or less ...

The first in a series of questions on building a realistic sedentary centaur culture. From what I have encountered, centaur civilizations are usually modeled on (semi)nomadic cultures from the ...

My book is about a near-future socialist insurgency. Think Che Guevara. Che Guevara won with only 22 men by garnering support of the local population. I've read his books and can't say I see many ...

TLDR: Portals to other places; wizards use them to make nukes-as-fireballs/anti-personal level attacks, how do they survive? In a system of magic that functions around opening portals, what ...

In my world a nation currently involved in a civil war between multiple warring factions is nearing an end. The man who has appeared as the victor is a blood thirsty tyrant, who continually ...

With our current understanding of physics it is not possible to send anything into the past (although GR mathematically allows it). Could an intelligent alien species with a 100,000+ year head start ...

I'm intrigued by the topos of varying season lengths brought to us in the Game of Thrones universe. I think it makes for a brilliant and versatile backdrop for the story, and it is something I'd like ...