Since Pratchett began writing about Discworld in 1983, his ideas involving the fanciful flat landscape, which rests on four gargantuan elephants and a turtle, have stretched across 40 novels, multiple stories, and several reference guides. This first of four Science of Discworld companion volumes, originally published in 1999, has now been reissued with updated scientific research that brings the series into the twenty-first century. In alternating chapters, the book adds another whimsical episode to Discworld lore and contrasts the magical "rules" of Pratchett's realm with the human world's more logic-oriented science. In the Discworld sections, an experiment at Unseen University goes awry, forcing its wizards to create a new universe where planets, including Roundworld (aka Earth), form into balls instead of discs. The nonfiction science chapters explore such themes as the origin of the universe, tectonic plates, and the evolution of mankind. For Pratchett and Discworld devotees the volume is, of course, compulsory reading, but even science buffs who would normally eschew anything resembling fantasy will find much here to pique their interests. --Carl Hays

Science of Discworld

Science & Math

STEWART, Ian

Cohen, Jack

PRATCHETT,TERRY

Astronomy & Space Science

Ebury Press

The wizards discover to their cost that it’s no easy task to change history. Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures that lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator — they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it’s all gone wrong — Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won’t be time for anyone to invent space flight, and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale’s dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Can the God of Evolution come to humanity’s aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place? From the Hardcover edition.

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

Science Fiction & Fantasy

A brilliant new Discworld story from Terry Pratchett. The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett's brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy. Marjorie Dawe is a librarian, and takes her job -- and indeed the truth of words -- very seriously. She doesn't know it, but her world and ours -- Roundworld -- is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal row is brewing. The Wizards of the Unseen University feel responsible for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by Omnians, who say that the Wizards' god-like actions make a mockery of their noble religion. As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle -- and when the Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on -- Marjorie Dawe finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right in the middle of the whole explosive affair. As God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter, disbelief systems -- and an in-depth study of how to invent a better mousetrap.

The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day: It's Wizards Vs Priests in a Battle for the Future of Roundworld

A brilliant new Discworld story from Terry Pratchett combined with cutting-edge science and philosophy from Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. This time the trio take on THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS -- God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else. The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett's brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy. Marjorie Daw is a librarian, and takes her job -- and indeed the truth of words -- very seriously. She doesn't know it, but her world and ours -- Roundworld -- is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal row is brewing. The Wizards of Unseen University feel responsible for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by Omnians, who say that the Wizards' god-like actions make a mockery of their noble religion. As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle -- and when the Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on -- Marjorie Daw finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right in the middle of the whole explosive affair. As God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter, disbelief systems -- and an in-depth study of how to invent a better mousetrap.

The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day

The fantastic first book in the The Sunday Times bestselling Science of Discworld series, fully revised and updated. When a wizardly experiment goes adrift, the wizards of Unseen University find themselves with a pocket universe on their hands: Roundworld, where neither magic nor common sense seems to stand a chance against logic. The Universe, of course, is our own. And Roundworld is Earth. As the wizards watch their accidental creation grow, we follow the story of our universe from the primal singularity of the Big Bang to the Internet and beyond. Through this original Terry Pratchett story (with intervening chapters from Cohen and Stewart) we discover how puny and insignificant individual lives are against a cosmic backdrop of creation and disaster. Yet, paradoxically, we see how the richness of a universe based on rules, has led to a complex world and at least one species that tried to get a grip of what was going on.

The Science of Discworld

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

The sequel to the bestselling Science of Discworld. The acclaimed Science of Discworld centred around an original Pratchett story about the Wizards of Discworld. In it they accidentally witnessed the creation and evolution of our universe, a plot which was interleaved with a Cohen &amp; Stewart non-fiction narrative about Big Science. In The Science of Discworld II our authors join forces again to see just what happens when the wizards meddle with history in a battle against the elves for the future of humanity on Earth. London is replaced by a dozy Neanderthal village. The Renaissance is given a push. The role of fat women in art is developed. And one very famous playwright gets born and writes The Play. Weaving together a fast-paced Discworld novelette with cutting-edge scientific commentary on the evolution and development of the human mind, culture, language, art, and science, The Globe presents a fascinating and brilliantly original view of the world we live in. The scene of the final epic battle is the first production of A Midsummer's Night Dream at the Globe Theatre.

The Science of Discworld II: The Globe

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

The latest instalment in the Sunday Times-bestselling Science of Discworld series. Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator -- they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong -- Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's no easy task to change history, as the wizards discover to their cost. Can the God of Evolution come to humanity's aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?

Bright clean cover has light shelf and edge wear. Text is perfect. Same day shipping.

Does God Play Dice: The Mathematics Of Chaos

Penguin Uk

Starting with an analysis of the forms of symmetry, the authors show how a few key principles can help us understand everything from cat's movements, corn circles, and snow crystals to subatomic particles and the overall structure of the cosmos. 127 figures. of full-color illustrations.

Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?

Politics & Social Sciences

Golubitsky, Martin

Philosophy

Penguin??Books

A collection of the author's recreational mathematics columns from "Pour la Science".

Game, Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums

Literary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by STEWART, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by STEWART, Ian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by STEWART, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Science of Discworld

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day: It's Wizards Vs Priests in a Battle for the Future of Roundworld

The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day

The Science of Discworld

The Science of Discworld II: The Globe

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

Does God Play Dice: The Mathematics Of Chaos

Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?

Game, Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums