62
votes
Cold-blooded intelligent race: Is it possible?
Their brains would be in low-power mode when cold and only reach the full intelligence when warm. They would operate mostly on instinct in low-power mode, just like real reptiles. But when heated by ...
- 965
45
votes
Accepted
Can a human colony be self-sustaining without sunlight using mushrooms?
NO:
The problem here is that there are no calories going into the system. Plants extract calories from the sun, but fungi extract calories from whatever they live on. The mushrooms must have fewer ...
- 62.8k
40
votes
Accepted
Is it biologically plausible for a land animal to drink saltwater and not drink freshwater?
In animals found on Earth, the ability to drink sea water is dependent on the ability of the kidneys to export salt without damage. Sea mammals can do it -- seals, sea lions, manatees and dugongs, ...
- 45.3k
39
votes
I can shrink myself to 3 mm and teleport into someone else's body. How can I make them die of a "natural" cause?
Syncope on staircases
Syncope, or fainting, happens when blood or oxygen stops getting to your brain. A very nasty time to get it is while walking down a staircase. If you pass out mid step, the ...
- 17.8k
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
How could an animal have a truly unidirectional respiratory system?
Maybe not too creative. But indisputably effective.
The gill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_gill
Water moves one way through the respiratory system in fish. In the mouth and out the gills. ...
- 303k
31
votes
What is the best ways of cleaning/bathing inside an astronaut suit?
Rotate troops often enough and it's a non-issue.
In a system of earthworks, the fire-trench where the action happens is only the outermost layer of a complex tiered system of trenches, bunkers, and ...
- 35.8k
31
votes
Why would humans carry around live plants in a post-apocalyptic world?
The Plants Filter Out Toxins
Part of the process of converting CO2 to O2 is storing the C (carbon), which is used to build the plant's biomass. So for a single plant to produce enough oxygen for a ...
- 3,551
30
votes
Accepted
How to make chocolate safe for Keidran? (Basically Dog-people)
chocolate is toxic to dogs, and by extension, dog-people
You've genetically engineered your furries using human technology which is clearly very sophisticated and capable. The tools are obviously ...
- 69.3k
27
votes
Can a person be immune to all diseases and poisons
TL;DR: Powers as given: Not Plausible
The Super-immune System
A person's immune system is designed to suss out things like bacteria and viruses, and likely anything that could mimic it enough. It ...
- 4,525
27
votes
How can a person kill a giant ape without using a weapon?
Frame Challenge
They can't. Or at least, not with Martial Arts. A Chimpanzee is between 3-5 times as strong as a Human. Fighting a Gorilla, even as a skilled martial artist team of warriors - would ...
- 11k
26
votes
Cold-blooded intelligent race: Is it possible?
Cold-blooded is not what you think
There is essentially endotherm and ectotherm.
Endothermic organisms have internal heat sources, ectothermic rely on external ones.
Brain is a function of available ...
- 1,505
26
votes
Knocking Out Zombies
they are walking human corpses reanimated by slime molds growing around their bones
If the hits cause enough damage to disconnect the bones, they zombie has little to no capability of moving.
...
- 266k
24
votes
Accepted
Why And How Do My Mind Readers Keep Their Ability Secret
If half the population have this ability, it's hard to imagine how you could keep it a secret from the other half for long. Sooner or later somebody is going to reveal the secret to a friend he ...
- 14.4k
23
votes
Accepted
What type of eyes are best suited towards fog and cloud cover?
Long wavelengths scatter least.
I was once approaching a stoplight in dense fog. It was red. Then it disappeared. When I got closer I could see it had turned green. The green light was scattered ...
- 303k
23
votes
Can a person be immune to all diseases and poisons
Not only it won't work as you think, it might actually make them more vulnerable to death by (immune) overreaction.
You see, the inside of our body is a really good place to live in: it is nicely warm ...
- 14.1k
23
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to use a system of ring-shaped muscles to pump blood instead of a heart?
Earthworms:
I think you are looking for a circulatory system like the humble earthworm. The very unique structure of the earthworm heart means it lacks a singular heart, but instead has a series of ...
- 62.8k
23
votes
Under what conditions would a society be able to remain undetected in our current world?
Rural Russia
The Russians abandoned many remote factories and industrial facilities when the USSR collapsed. We can see them; what we didn't know (or care about) is that they seem to be occupied by ...
- 11.5k
23
votes
Could an animal evolve to smell by throwing scents into the environment and waiting for them to get reflected back?
This is comparing apples to oranges. Smells do not reflect off of surfaces.
Sight and hearing measure waves. Smells don't come in waves.
Even so, imagine that a creature would throw a stream of ...
- 131k
23
votes
Accepted
How would I go about explaining the science of a world where everything is made of fabrics and craft supplies?
No need for science in a story like this!
And you are in good company.
“Who are you?” asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched himself and
yawned. “And where are you going?”
“My name is Dorothy,” ...
- 303k
23
votes
Could a gene be added to people that would stop them drinking?
There are numerous genetic qualities that cause this effect.
One of them is called flushing. When eliminating alcohol from your body, one of the intermediate stages is to convert the alcohol to ...
- 11.7k
22
votes
Accepted
Would Underwater Races be Near or Farsighted?
Interesting question!
First things first, let’s talk about how an eye works. Well, I don’t know. I’m no doctor. It’s probably crazy complex. But for our purposes, an eye is just gonna be made up of a ...
- 1,089
22
votes
How can I tie an individual's general appearance with the season they're born in?
In some reptiles the sex of the to-be-born embryo is determined by the incubation temperature of the egg.
You can have a similar mechanism in place, in which the phenotype is determined by the ...
- 266k
22
votes
Is it biologically plausible for a land animal to drink saltwater and not drink freshwater?
Selective Pressure:
Can they drink salt water? Yes, it's certainly possible.
Must they NOT drink fresh water? Now that's complicated. Or is it?
Nasty Water:
The fresh water on your world is hopelessly ...
- 62.8k
22
votes
Biodiversity through radiation
From a high level point of view, yes, it possible.
In the past, before genetic engineering techniques were available, a way of producing new types of plants was to use irradiation fields: a ...
- 266k
21
votes
What challenges must oceanic plant life overcome in order to create a mat on top of the ocean?
Thermoclines are a reason why on Earth, oceans are really not very productive, basically if water is deep enough, that is most of the oceans, only surface is heated, which makes two separate layers, ...
- 351
21
votes
Why And How Do My Mind Readers Keep Their Ability Secret
Mind readers don’t know they’re different
Nobody is hiding anything. Mind reading doesn’t pop up like a notification “Alice is having A Thought!”. It’s more like a vague intuition, like guessing with ...
- 5,479
21
votes
Would a trait that's genetics have "circular dominance" be plausible?
Gene regulating protein with differing binding site:
Your gene produces a protein that up-regulates the expression of other genes. Each allele has a slightly different binding site, and thus causes ...
- 62.8k
21
votes
What earth crops could be grown on a high gravity (1.5-3g) planet?
Experiments with hypergravity show that plants adapt to different levels of gravity very well, despite plants having evolved exclusively in a 1.0 g environment.
For example I'll pull a quote from a ...
- 1,814
20
votes
Hypothetically, can early humans have an alliance with giant ants? Maybe even assist humans in the agricultural revolution?
"Domesticated" means, that they are artificially bred and their behaviour is modified, by breeding, to suit our needs. So, for example, honeybees are domesticated to be less aggressive and ...
- 11k
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