Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III - Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, Terry Pratchett

...very odd biography of Charles Darwin's life, and takes up at most a quarter of the book. On the other hand, if you're interested in the science the interludes do provide a short respite from thinking too hard! Back to the science. After that initial irritating waffle about the topic in hand, the authors detour through several other topics which may or may not be of interest - and which weren't always obviously connected. In hindsight, the breadth ...
...discussion on an infinite universe tying in with my point above on probability. However, there do seem to be more than a few tangents, which again may or may not really 'work'. One section I found it hard to get my head around was the discussions on Special and General Relativity, infinity and really really BIG numbers, and a Whole Lot of Stuff Like That. Heavy going at the best of times, and two chapters in a book like this have their work cut ...

Calypte 30.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III - Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, Terry Pratchett

...OK, two-and-a-half-camps. After reading Darwin's Watch I am not about to begin to pretend to be able to argue about numbers. We will come to those. The novels ARE derivative… They derive from all manner of sources: Shakespeare, opera, history to name some of the obvious ones…but also from Science. Much of what happens 'magically' on Discworld happens 'technically' or 'scientifically' in reality. They have very fast imps with paintbrushes…we have ...
...read the two predecessors* to Darwin's Watch. The scientists in question are Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University and Jack Cohen, biologist and science writer. The structure of the 'Science of …' books is very simple. Alternate chapters are given to the novelist and the scientists. Pratchett tells us a Discworld tale, and Stewart & Cohen 'translate' it for us. In the first 'Science' book, the wizards created Earth. More precisely, ...

hiker 22.12.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III - Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, Terry Pratchett

I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett's, in-fact I would say he was my favourite novellist. I haven't read a book by Terry Pratchett in ages, apart from this one which I have recently read twice over, but when I did read them I read alot. This book was a good read, but as always it was abit of a brain twister. -------------THE STORY ------------------ Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, ...
...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 ...

mimicmwb 10.09.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III - Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart, Terry Pratchett