“Ghost atmospheres?” you might ask. Well…conventionally when we worldbuild planets, in the context of harder science fiction, we assume that atmospheres of terrestrial planets will be primarily carbon dioxide/nitrogen mixtures, or else will have been CO2/N2 mixtures but modified by life; to wit, Earth is … Continue readingWorldbuilding Ghost Atmospheres
I know it deserves an entry in some atlas obscura, it’s so poorly known outside very niche circles, but so help me I’ve always loved “Alien Planet” ever since the 2005 speculative documentary was first shown on the Discovery Channel (yes, I’m that old). It’s … Continue reading“Alien Planet”: A Fan Theory
I’ve already covered how Earth at the last glacial maximum was in fact not a frozen hell but something closer to a paradise, one we still enjoy remnants of today…but there are some aspects of ice-age Earth that even the best refugia cannot preserve. Few … Continue readingThe Glacial American South: A Lost World
Don’t ask me how I got into this, but I was reading up on myopia, i.e. nearsightedness, and I was shocked by how common it is — in parts of Asia up to 90% of the younger generation is nearsighted, with Western countries approaching the … Continue reading“She Hasn’t Grown Out of Her Readers Yet”
I already have a frankly rather interesting concept for a planet dominated by sharp relief, to the tune of nigh-Martian highlands and the usual thick-air jungle-y lowlands, with the ocean reservoirs being underground, primarily. “Cascadia Below, Mars Above” I called it; but siting it in … Continue readingWorlds of Ice, Snow, and Salt
Adventures in worldbuilding continue, this time with a planet I’m not sure where to site, but it’s a definite type of world that might be out there that I haven’t explored yet: a world orbiting beyond the classic “habitable zone” but warmed by a greenhouse … Continue readingCascadia Below, Mars Above?
I know I just revisited my fictional planet Cerberus…but why not revisit it again? It is my blog, after all. But seriously, I do have some more details I’ve settled in on as I continue to tune the environment to suit the vibe I have … Continue readingFleshing Out Cerberus: Antarctic Vibes?
Cerberus: the ultimate desert coast under a white-dwarf sun. I’ve worldbuilt for it once or twice on this website, but although alien, I haven’t explored just how alien Sirius B’s planet in my fictional universe would be until recently. There are also new aspects to … Continue readingCerberus: A World Out of Classic Sci-Fi?
Garbage. You just can’t get away from it. Not even in Challenger Deep, it seems, the darkest and most distant of all seabeds. Over the course of exploration of this mysterious reach, which started in 1960 but only truly picked up pace in the 2010s … Continue readingA World Without Garbage
I ask: “what if: a bromofluorocarbon world?” “A what?” you might reply. It’s perhaps one of the most underrated of all alternate history what-ifs: it’s well known that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), while inert and non-toxic on the surface, destroy ozone when they waft up to the … Continue readingBeautiful and Terrible as the Dawn