A famous example of world building in science fiction is a phrase Robert Heinlein used: "the door irised open". I learned this just now from the Wikipedia article on "incluing", which is the word for the showing rather than telling of the composition of the world in question. You know, not: "as you know, Bob, we have strange buildings with motion-sensor doors in our space-age time which is wonderfully technological, yet slightly fascist."

The funny thing is, if you Google "door irised open", you get just reams of the lowest quality fan-fiction. Talking centaurs, Neuromancer-ripoffs, Harry/Ginny slash, and the search page fills with strange names that have too many vowels in them.