?

I usually see silicon-based life portrayed as being crystalline in nature. I've read that silicone-based life is perhaps more plausible, but I've never seen an artistic portrayal; the only thing I know about their appearance is that they apparently probably *wouldn't* look the way silicon-based life looks in the art. So what would it be likely to look like? How would it be different in appearance from organic life? Would there be any visible features which we would see as especially weird or which would scream "I'm silicone-based, not organic!"?

Also, this is for science-fictional purposes, so answers along the lines of "there is no evidence that non-organic life exists" aren't going to be terribly helpful. Thanks!

I really want to do creative writing, but there's a problem. For some reason, the thought of sharing my work with others (kind of necessary for the writing process, obviously) mortifies me to the extreme. I can't fathom why; I just find the idea really embarrassing, like it exposes me somehow. Any advice for dealing with this feeling?

Or does particle-wave duality make the notion of a single photon meaningless? I'm not sure.

I just came across a conspiracy theory suggesting that the moon entered Earth's orbit at the beginning of the Holocene, 12,000 years ago. Now, I know this sounds completely ridiculous, but you need to understand that my interest comes from the fact that I'm thinking this could be a great basis for a fantasy novel, if I could come up with a vaguely-plausible in-story justification to keep from breaking suspension of disbelief.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/14070...

It seems to be arguing that birds and dinosaurs are separate lineages. I find that pretty hard to swallow, but I haven't been able to find anything else on the subject.Opinions? I'd like to know whether or not I have to restructure my whole understanding of avian evolution.

Everything I've seen suggests that it's pronounced with a short a (the first, I mean), but if that's the case, why does it have a macron? From what I've read, it's specifically IPA, so I'm pretty sure it *is* a macron… Shouldn't it be pronounced with a long a?

It seems like bookstores are closing all the time. More and more people are switching to electronic books. I'm really scared that codices (that is to say, our modern print book format) will eventually become a rarity. I like codices. I like the practicality. I like the feel. I like the smell, as weird as that sounds. I don't like the paper cuts, but hey, nothing's perfect.

How likely is it that they will become obsolete? Is there a precedence for this sort of thing?

Is it part of Oceania? An island? Or do they just kind of pretend it doesn't exist?

If so, how long did it last? If not, why?

Surely there must have at least been some extinct equines which displayed this feature. Though I'd love to know about any non-equines, too. Doesn't matter whether they're ungulates or (as in the case of procoptodons) not.

I mean, I've seen synapsida referred to as a class, but I also know that mammalia is a class, and all mammals are synapsids. So is synapsida both a class and a clade, or can you have more than one class?

I'm trying to remember the name of a creature I learned about years back in a mythology class in high school. It was a fairy-like spirit, associated with creation, or at least with helping early man to survive. They came from the mythology of a culture in the North American Southwest, and were depicted in rock art. I am about 80% sure that the name started with a "y", but I could be wrong. I think they were depicted with bright colo(u)rs, like yellow, and I know that they had weirdly-shaped heads--square and triangular. Ringing any bells? Thanks in advance.

In one of the Walking With… documentaries (I think it was Dinosaurs), some ammonites are seen retreating inside their shells and then closing it with a sort of lid. Did this lid actually exist? Do nautiloids have a similar structure? Where would the lid be when open, if it did/does exist?

I've heard speculation before that we might still have remnants of instincts from as far back as the Palaeozoic. Its occurs to me that during the Palaeozoic, the Carboniferous especially, arthropods got really huge. I've read that arthropods had a huge influence on the evolution of our early ancestors, providing a selective pressure via predation.

It seems odd that most arthropods could create as intense an irrational fear in us as they often do. Other than occasional instances of poison, disease, or parasitism, they don't really pose any kind to threat to us most of the time. And yet, for example, the very first time I ever saw a cellar spider, having never even heard of them before, I was utterly horrified. To this day, spiders are one of my biggest fears. I find it hard to believe it could be strictly cultural.

I've heard suggestion before that things like arachnophobia and entomophobia could be evolved responses to the more dangerous arthropods that threatened our recent ancestors, but is it possible that it goes back much further than that?

I was always told that it was discrimination based on race, but I recently came across the claim that it refers specifically to instances of a majority toward a minority. Which is correct?

I've already seen Walking With (Prehistoric) Beasts. Any other good ones?

I.E., meat that's not from an animal, but is grown in a metaphorical test tube? I know it exists, but is the cost of production practical? If not, can we make it practical in the future?

That is to say, if there was an alien species which saw a higher or lower range of light than us, but had the same spectrum length, would they see the same colours? Different colours? Is colour an arbitrary concept, or is there some universality to it?

(If this sort of thing tends to break your suspension of disbelief, you may not want to read on.)

Okay, so as I understand it, in the presence of a cosmic string, due to the intense gravitational effects, the speed of light is increased in a local manner. This means that you can go faster than our speed of light there. So let's say there's a ship flying near a cosmic string, going at 0.99c. There is a wizard aboard. He waves his wand, and magically teleports the ship into normal space. What happens?

Does the ship instantaneously stop or slow down?

Is the momentum translated to the equivalent fraction of our c?

Is it logically impossible to transfer the momentum like that, even if you're magic?

Something else?

This question was conceived while I was half-asleep during an illness, so don't take it too seriously. I'm sure not.