The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

A quick read, written in an easily accessible style. The authors discuss the scientific basis behind the fantasy trilogy, and the theories that informed the book. A bit heavy on physics; there was almost no other science mentioned, though biology does have some play in this book. They touched briefly on the evolution of the wheeled creatures, but didn't even discuss some of the biological problems that were solved by the author in the technique he chose. The explanations of string theory were well written, and one of the better I've seen that make it more accessible to the layman; plus they do a reasonably good job of explaining the connection between the particles without dipping into metaphysical nonsense. My one complaint is that the show more title is misleading; it really should be The Physics of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials; I was really hoping for a more balanced discussion, and one that recognizes other sciences besides physics - you know, like Chemistry and Biology. Otherwise, a fun and interesting read. show less

This book looks at the concepts in Pullman's famous fantasy series and how they are or might be reflected in the science and technology of our world, e.g. Northern Lights, Dust, the alethiometer, movement between worlds using the subtle knife, the amber spyglass, and so on. In doing so, the Gribbins discuss dark matter, sub-atomic physics, string theory, quantum probability, the Butterfly Effect and chaos, entanglement, the Many Worlds theory, Schrodinger's cat and more. The authors explain stuff as clearly as they can, there are some really tough scientific and philosophical concepts here in this short book. My only slight disappointment was the lack of coverage of the concept of daemons, which I always find one of the most appealing show more concepts in Lyra's world. show less

A very basic introduction to quantum mechanics, theoretical physics, evolution, and other concepts from Philip Pullman's trilogy written at a late elementary/early middle school level. I didn't realize this book was meant for children when I picked it up so I was disappointed by the lack of depth, especially since I was already familiar with most of the science explained. The book really only skims the surface of each concept. Still, it's a worthwhile read for fans of His Dark Materials who have little to no knowledge about these topics and want to understand the series in (slightly) more depth.

I can see how this book would be interesting to some people, but for me it was just not worth struggling through. There are two problems with this book for me: 1) I'm not that into Philip Pullman and 2) I'm not that into science. I suppose I shouldn't have bothered to pick this book because of those two reasons, but it came highly recommended by friends. I found that if you are not thoroughly into Philip Pullman then you tend to be a little lost at times. There are parts that you have to know from reading his books. They don't give you much of explaining the book parts that they are using when talking about the science. The science part was very interesting. The theories were talked about in depth. It would be fascinating to someone show more that cared about that sort of thing. I'm just not that type of person. show less

Fascinating book. I'm not sure how much of it I understood, but I was intrigued the entire time I was reading!

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Gribbin-Les-mysteres-de-la-science-dans-la-trilog...
> BAnQ (Tremblay C., Le devoir, 9 avr. 2005, F-6) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2815462