305
votes
Anatomically Correct Strange Women In Ponds Distributing Swords
I suspect that she is a woman.
Be able to live or at least spend long periods of time underwater in a lake
"Long periods" is relative and opinion based. Kimberly Jeffries can hold her ...
- 131k
139
votes
Anatomically Correct Strange Women In Ponds Distributing Swords
She is a normal woman standing in a submerged bin
While she awaits the chosen one she sits on the stool. As soon as she hears the coconuts, she stands on the stool and arranges her samite robe to ...
- 49.1k
126
votes
Accepted
Given immortality can animals become intelligent?
Evidence suggests that no creature becomes more intelligent than it needs to be, intelligence is expensive of calories, for example, human brains are about 2% of our overall mass but require 20% of ...
- 44.7k
92
votes
Accepted
Justifying why a troll's skin would turn to stone in sunlight
Their skin contains a set of proteins that will bind to each other and harden when exposed to certain wavelengths, much like dental composite polymers:
Composites are placed while still in a soft, ...
- 131k
85
votes
How fast would a sword need to be to avoid getting blood on it?
Speed Not Required
Give your sword a hydrophobic coating and it will never get any blood on it. The coating repels liquids, causing them to bead up like water on a lotus leaf and just run off. Bonus ...
- 6,706
83
votes
Make slimes great again, but how?
Slimes can't be harmed with weapons
They don't have a solid form. Slash it with a sword, whack it with a hammer, poke it with a spear, and all you get is a wet thud.
Slimes can't be harmed by fire
...
- 85k
73
votes
Could a plant grow on a restrained, living human?
First off let me say yuck!, that is a series of Google searches I can never take back.
But as to your question, apparently plants often germinate inside the human body, specifically inside the lungs, ...
- 24.2k
72
votes
How would deafening as punishment be carried out?
There is historical record (although old and unreliable) that, in 1031 or 32, Vazul, the grand prince of Hungary, was blinded and deafened using molten lead to make him unsuitable as king. It was not ...
- 741
70
votes
Accepted
How big is my Giant?
Square-Cubic Law tells us that at some size the neck of our giant breaks under its own weight(2), but how large is a giant that has a ring that fits a forearm?
Our Giant's finger's diameter is the ...
- 15.2k
63
votes
A method to cause maximum pain to a human
An electrode wired directly into the brain's pain centers would provide any level of pain you require at the flip of a switch. We have done this with test animals, mostly mice in order to study pain ...
- 24.2k
62
votes
How many years before enough atoms of your body are replaced to survive the sudden disappearance of the original body’s atoms?
Your former projection will be in for a hard time, even if they've faithfully served their summoner for decades.
Why? The calcium in bone (and more so teeth, especially the enamel) is relatively ...
- 45.3k
59
votes
Justifying why a troll's skin would turn to stone in sunlight
Another classic trait of trolls, is a tremendous regenerative ability. Sometimes to the point where only fire can kill them.
So I'd suggest trolls create a chemical in their body that boosts their ...
- 2,310
53
votes
Accepted
How large can a water bear become before it loses its abilities?
Sadly, (for they would be adorable) no.
One of the main things that's going to hinder your dear "water boars" (hey if normally sized tardigrades are called water pigletts why not call these ones ...
- 9,692
50
votes
How fast would a sword need to be to avoid getting blood on it?
Not only is speed not required as per Joe Kissling's answer but speed is not able to keep it clean, either. The sword will be pushing through blood as it cuts, it's impossible for blood not to get on ...
- 30.2k
48
votes
Would this winged human/angel be able to fly?
Probably not
I agree that the work is incredible, but ultimately the problem with the design is always going to be the downstroke of the wing.
Birds have massively well developed pectoral muscles. ...
- 53.9k
45
votes
Barehanded vs direwolf
An unarmed, unarmoured, unprepared human against a large apex predator? That can be expected to hunt in packs? That's a fairly clever hunter? That eats things that are substantially bigger, stronger, ...
- 69.4k
41
votes
Accepted
Make slimes great again, but how?
Slimes are very big.
The little puddle on the floor is to the body of the slime as a mushroom is to the mycelium below. The mushroom is the size of your finger. The mycelium is the size of a car. ...
- 303k
41
votes
Anatomically Correct Strange Women In Ponds Distributing Swords
Did you know some turtles can breathe through their butt?
Here we have a similar thing: a humanoid lady clad in long folds of her own skin, which just so happens to look like samite. Which, after ...
- 3,269
41
votes
Barehanded vs direwolf
This is a game. You aren't going to get killed in the first 10 seconds.
https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/924806
If you attack it will kill you. If you run it will chase you and then if you turn ...
- 303k
40
votes
Accepted
How tall can a humanoid creature be without alerting the rest of the planet with earthquakes?
A real answer is a calculus problem that requires many different iffy variables that will be difficult to determine. So I am just going to ballpark it instead. In a lot of places, I have rounded or ...
- 5,687
39
votes
What type of food might an organism that lives its entire life in interstellar space eat?
Such a creature would most likely dine on a diet of the finest pixie dust
Unfortunately, the creature you describe is so far from reality and the laws of physics that we are pretty much 100% in the ...
- 131k
39
votes
Accepted
Where to place an artificial gland in the human body?
Art Imitates Life
Lucky for you, the implantation (or rather reimplantation) of endocrine glands is already a thing. During parathyroidectomy, it is common practice to perform autotransplantation of ...
- 39k
39
votes
How do I stop Bob the gigantic animal from overheating?
Biological methods to reduce internal body temperature:
Increase surface area of skin, via cracks, and folds (mentioned elsewhere) like an elephant.
Use extrusions of the skin to increase surface ...
- 1,021
38
votes
Accepted
Metal-Feathered Macaw Viability Part 1: How Can It Fly?
I'll take a stab at this...
First things first, I'm finding it hard to find exact figures about the weight of a macaw's feathers but a general consensus seems to be the bird itself weighs around 1kg (...
- 12.6k
38
votes
Given immortality can animals become intelligent?
In addition to Ash's answer:
You assume that every lifeform spends its entire life learning indefinitely. This is just plain incorrect. Not only could you look at the elderly of most species and see ...
- 6,829
37
votes
Make slimes great again, but how?
Every drop of slime is a slime.
If you splash goo everywhere while hitting, they'll each act as separate conscious slimes.
The drops on your armor will search the gaps.
The drops on your weapon will ...
- 4,279
37
votes
How can a mortal woman successfully carry a demigod to term?
Do not make a problem where you do not have one
Demi-gods have been born by fully human mothers in hundreds of myths all around the world for thousands of years without anyone ever making an issue out ...
- 41k
35
votes
Accepted
How can I tie an individual's general appearance with the season they're born in?
Epigenetics
Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Epigenetic changes are modifications to DNA that regulate whether ...
34
votes
Universal Phonetic Alphabet
Frame challenge: you are giving yourself a lot of unnecessary work.
Your implanted translators mean that your readers or players don't need to know the details of your languages' phonetics. That table ...
- 22.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible