Questions tagged [life]
For questions about the characteristics of living beings in different settings. This tag is not for questions about the daily life of characters.
177
questions
4
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Is a desert planet with a small habitable area possible?
My world takes place on a desert planet, but there is a small habitable forest with water and life. My main inspiration for this is Halem'no from star trek, but without a weather tower sustaining the ...
- 2,107
4
votes
3
answers
916
views
Could we have a humanoid life-form that requires CO₂?
How would an heterotroph alien life form exist if it purely needed to inhale CO₂?
Would it be lazier and bulkier that carbon based life forms who require oxygen, like us humans?
I am trying to ...
- 1,387
3
votes
2
answers
236
views
What is the maximum survivable gravity for humans for say 8 months
I know the human body can survive multiple g's for short periods - like fighter pilots or F1 drivers. But what is maximum survivable gravity for more than just a transient moment? Could a body live on ...
- 30.4k
4
votes
2
answers
381
views
Could a civilization have existed on earth when our planet was much smaller, and as earth gained more size could it have grew around and above them? [closed]
I want to create a civilization that were living on earth when the planet was a much smaller protoplanet or a planetesimal. If earth grew over billions of years, could a civilization have existed ...
0
votes
0
answers
21
views
Regarding silicon-based life, how would using silane instead of silicone in chemical compounds change how the lifeform works? [duplicate]
All I currently know is that they require cryogenic solvents, cold temperatures, hydrogen to breathe, and only inhale. What else should I know for using silane in silicon lifeforms?
6
votes
3
answers
311
views
Can a planet with rings support life?
Is it at all possible for complex life to evolve and exist on a planet with rings?
I assume the rings would have to be rock, since if the planet is to support life, it will have to be in the habitable ...
- 161
4
votes
1
answer
94
views
Could a planet with an unusually high heavy metal content sustain life? [closed]
I'm playing around with the concept of a planet containing unusually high heavy metal content, due to being born in a nebula that resulted from a neutron star merger. What conditions would this planet ...
- 10.9k
29
votes
22
answers
7k
views
Is it possible to live without killing?
Hooray! Aliens are discovered, the alien community is out there, and we want to join them.
However to join their illustrious organisation, the Galactic Federation, it is a deeply moral group, and the ...
- 97.7k
4
votes
1
answer
146
views
Gas giant ecologies with more realistic weather. Sky anchors
I've always enjoyed stories that explore ideas about life in the clouds of gas giants. The Algebraist by Banks is my favorite. Though one thing that never quite rang true to me about stories like The ...
- 113
5
votes
2
answers
228
views
Life in the vacuum of space: What if we looked in the wrong places?
Forget space whales, forget star-trek-style creatures like the crystal entity, forget space creatures so massive that they have their gravity to hold on to an atmosphere around them. The issue with ...
- 10.9k
3
votes
1
answer
509
views
Planet orbiting a star orbiting a black hole - can there be life?
Sagittarius A* is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way with at least 45 stars orbiting it. It weighs in at over 4.2 million solar masses and is likely rotating, which has interesting effects on ...
- 142k
10
votes
7
answers
3k
views
Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
So, a setting I'm brainstorming is basically a tribal world, with Hunter-gatherers, animism, and the like.
One of the features I want to add, to make it stand out from our own world is the existence ...
- 127k
2
votes
1
answer
146
views
How can I make my insect life cycle time system more accurate
In my world, there is not day or night, only dusk and dawn. Their time system is based on an insect called an Ersen which follows a very mechanical and strict life cycle which is synchronised ...
CommunityBot
- 1
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Must a planet's magnetic poles be coaxial with the axis of rotation?
I have this idea for a planet whose magnetic field is not aligned with the axis of rotation as is the case for Earth (I know they're not exactly aligned, but hear me out). How plausible is this, and ...
- 42.4k
14
votes
15
answers
5k
views
Could there be an alien life form (a complex animal) that lives hundreds of thousands of years, or even millions of years?
On earth, most animals live decades, and only a handful over 100 years. What has led to such a 'short' lifespan across the board?
Assuming there may be other carbon-based life forms similar to that of ...
- 888
7
votes
4
answers
667
views
Could two planets located in the habitable zone create life and in turn intelligent life around the same time?
I have two planets located in the habitable zone of a 1.02-mass Star(Class: G1.7V).
The first planet is located 1 AU away from the Star and the Sun is 1.08 times brighter than our sun to anyone on the ...
- 1,321
8
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Would My Planet’s Blue Sun Kill Earth-Life?
I’m creating an Earth-like world where the sun appears blue to people from the planet’s surface. I think I’ve narrowed down the cause of this effect to the presence of 1 micron particles in the ...
- 97.7k
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
On a planet with larger gravity, would aquatic creatures be larger or smaller?
It is somewhat common knowledge in the worldbuilding community that larger planets leads to smaller land creatures, because larger planets means more gravity gets bigger and that makes it harder to ...
- 78.3k
1
vote
2
answers
115
views
Would this unorthodox planet be habitable by carbon based life forms?
While researching volcanoes, it’s very clear super-volcanic eruptions are not only dangerous to life in its vicinity, but the entire planet as it can decrease global temperature and cause long periods ...
- 4,666
2
votes
3
answers
323
views
What adaptations would be needed for life and water around a blue star?
Of course it's very obvious that blue stars are insanely hot and would boil away most things if they got too close. BUT I'm curious if with just the right adaptations and fiddling, could there, ...
- 63.3k
5
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Iron based life
Lately I have been thinking about possible forms of life on planets that would have radically different experiences than here on Earth. I was wondering if life based on transition metals was possible ...
- 115
3
votes
1
answer
169
views
Could this animal exist on my planet
Im working on a project where I'm designing a theoretically possible planet with life and I had an idea for a massive sea animal (500-550 meters in length). Water animals get help from buoyancy but ...
- 30.4k
0
votes
4
answers
366
views
Fire Planet as a light/heat source for my planets
So, basically, I was looking for a alternate light/heat source for my science-fiction novel which I am planning to write. I didn't rely on stars due to some reasons that I omitted from the original ...
- 7,767
9
votes
1
answer
283
views
Could a planet support life if its only energy came from antimatter striking its atmosphere?
This planet is a rogue planet without any star or without being volcanically active. Antimatter continually collides with the planet, and annihilates with hydrogen in the upper atmosphere. This ...
- 102k
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Could an ecosystem exist where no rain falls (only snow and ice)?
I am trying to create a boreal, alien ecosystem loosely based on Northern Siberia. Liquid rain never falls here, since snow and hail fall instead for most of the year, and the short, hot summers- the ...
- 29.1k
9
votes
4
answers
511
views
Could a moon of Epsilon Eridani b Have Surface Oceans of Liquid Water?
Specifically, the gas giant Epsilon Eridani b, and a moon that has a mass of ≥0.25 Me. If there's no feasible way the moon could have oceans at a distance of 3.52 AU from a star that emits 0.34 times ...
- 109
7
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Why is overpopulation not an issue on a floating island where people can live for a long time
In my setting there are large floating islands and much smaller floating islands that flow in random directions. Smaller ones sometimes contain mini ecosystems or ore veins that are extremely useful ...
- 15.3k
3
votes
1
answer
111
views
Organic reactions in alien peat [closed]
So imagine there's a peat composed of a mixture of partially decomposed polypropylene and polyethylene. Another girl and I worked out the reactions for polyethylene and its decomposition byproducts, ...
- 305k
5
votes
2
answers
198
views
Superactinide Incorporating Biochemistry
Alright so as it is known, trans-uranic elements are universally unstable. However, in this setting, I'm using forms of quark matter that can imitate the nucleus of transuranic elements at least mass ...
- 305k
2
votes
1
answer
231
views
Biosolvents for Life
What biosolvents could, in theory, permit the emergence of life on other worlds? I have been recently looking through possible biosolvents and I have found a good number, but I am specifically looking ...
- 6,922
0
votes
4
answers
285
views
Could a planet be cut in half and still sustain life? [closed]
Say some sort of anti-planet weapon shoots an arc of energy slicing the planet in 2, could the said planet keep it’s atmosphere and life.
- 17k
1
vote
0
answers
83
views
Underwater life on a 3G world [closed]
I'm creating a 3G ocean world and am wondering how the heavier gravity would affect life under this ocean?
-3
votes
1
answer
604
views
2.5x atmospheric pressure + 25% atmospheric oxygen saturation level =? [closed]
So my question is pretty much as the title states, what would be the effects on the human body with these atmospheric conditions? More specifically, how would effect the growth of land mammals, ...
- 8,863
7
votes
5
answers
590
views
What evolutionary driver could produce life that are animated only by light?
Imagine an alien world populated by silicon based lifeforms, the mega fauna can only be animated by exposure to adequate lights from the star or the moon. This world concept is inspired by a ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
156
views
Darkness on a hycean world
Hycean worlds are planets twice as big as earth and covered in water oceans and with atmosphere full of hydrogen. A dark hycean world is one such world tidally locked to a star with one side forever ...
CommunityBot
- 1
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Existence of life using sulfur instead of oxygen
All life on earth (or at least most of them) require oxygen, at least to form the organic molecules that build up life. We know that sulfur has similar chemical properties. Organic compounds that ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
73
views
Plants or something else that enriches distilled water
I'm writing a story in a world very similar to our Earth, but with few differences.
In this world, the "human" beings have to deal with the shortage of drinkable water. But they have plenty ...
- 141
-4
votes
2
answers
178
views
Reasons why a sentient universe would create life? [closed]
The basic idea I had was that the universe basically thought itself into being and from there decided to create life. It sent out the seeds for life to begin, then created a race to watch over things. ...
- 523
7
votes
3
answers
525
views
Biological siege weapons: Part 2 - Can a living thing effectively perform the role of ranged siege weaponry such as trebuchets?
As was pointed out by the great answers of my first question regarding biological siege weapons, organisms can be rather capable of making it through fortified defenses at close range, but what about ...
- 1,483
2
votes
4
answers
751
views
Too much oxygen and not enough carbon
If a planet has a lot of oxygen to support mega flora and fauna, how much would be too much?
My planet has the oxygen content about that of the carboniferous(as a starter example), which had a about ...
- 491
15
votes
15
answers
3k
views
Biological siege weapons: Part 1 - Are living things capable of breaking down the gates of a medieval gatehouse?
The setting features biomancers who, to summarize, are magic users who can create living things as minions or servants through various ways(seeds, modified eggs, whatever), have the option to directly ...
- 19.7k
7
votes
1
answer
175
views
How big of a reactor a colony of a million should have for self sustaining, closed loop existance, assuming current level of technologies [duplicate]
Suppose there is no sun, how much total energy is required to grow food, recycle air, water, and waste for a single person. I want to know how large of a reactor would be needed to keep alive a ...
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
127
views
Would soil alone be able to provide everything that's needed to feed the development of an animal body without in-between edibles?
The setting features biomancers, mages who are like necromancers in that their magic revolves mainly around the use and obtaining or creation of minions or servants or the modification of said ...
- 46.5k
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What if all life disappeared from the earth?
What if all life (plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and everything from the smallest cell to the largest whale) disappeared instantly?
And here I don't mean things related to the disappearance of ...
- 46.5k
1
vote
4
answers
2k
views
Is an almost entirely water-based planet stable enough to stay as a planet for long enough for complex life to form?
Imagine an earth mass that consists purely and entirely of water that orbits a star similar to ours at a similar orbital distance to Mars(or whatever distance would be sufficient for the planet to ...
- 878
5
votes
4
answers
212
views
Realistic reverse aging?
More than a few times in fiction they've had a sentient species age in reverse, as in the children look like adults and the adults like little children. My question is how could this trait be ...
- 1
-2
votes
1
answer
124
views
Indicators of Ai Super Intelligence [closed]
Given the certain state of Ai, what indicators would show some level of ‘Super Intelligence’?
Here are some of my ideas of 'Super Intelligence' this is subjective, of course.
Able to operate on ...
- 14.9k
0
votes
1
answer
115
views
Synthetic hydro carbon based Life
This question includes Genuine Artificial intelligence as life so long as it is self replicating and sapient. Hard science only please.
Can a sapient self replicating entity be designed to exclusively ...
- 292k
3
votes
1
answer
182
views
Scientific explanation for rainbow fire or sparks from a biological entity
I recently re-watched guardians of the galaxy vol.2, and the creature at the beginning could shoot rainbow colored fire. This got me thinking, (as in my spare time sometimes I like to just write a ...
- 292k
1
vote
2
answers
174
views
Would this planet be habitable for intelligent lifeforms
I am trying to make a universe using math and this is a planet from the first solar system I am making. Firstly the star. This star, which I don't have a name for, has a mass of 1.3 solar masses, a ...
- 10.1k