The Science of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy
by Michael Hanlon
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Reviews
“Enlightening and thought provoking — like having a pint with Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Johnny Ball.” Daily Mail
"An excellent book exploring fundamentally serious matters in a most entertaining way. Rather a shame that many people will ignore it because they think it's about the 'Guide'!" The Skeptic
"Hanlon has a remarkable ability to simplify complicated concepts and make the vast numbers employed in modern science manageable for the reader. His light touch and ear for metaphor help transform difficult concepts into language that's understandable." Chemical & Engineering News
"Hanlon has produced a very good book - readable, concise and easy flowing. If
he continues writing in this informed and competent manner, it won't be long before he's as popular as Hawking or Dawkins". SFCrowsnest [Europe's most popular science fiction and fantasy site]
"Hanlon is a witty writer, able to lucidly explain the intricacies of quantum physics, theoretical physics and the peculiarities of a 'multiverse' in some depth. He spans astronomy, philosophy and engineering and topics such as growing steaks in test tubes, time travel and the possibility of life on other planets."
The Engineer
"Adopting Adams' witty, punchy style, Hanlon's guide is a fun and vivid read. The science twinkles a little more than usual in such a zany setting...he tackles a wide range of cutting-edge topics with depth and authority." Nature
"Good stuff...It's great the way Hanlon flits from one topic to another, weaving a web of scientific and technological ideas...his light style is ideally fitted to exploring the products of Douglas Adams' mind." www.popularscience.co.uk
"Hanlon's book probes the possibilities inside the fiction with wit and scientist humour...not that you have to be a boffin to enjoy these ruminations, merely curious, as the late Adams himself clearly was" - The Herald
"FOUR STARS: If you want to find out why the number 42 is so important catch the new movie. For a look at the facts it's based on you won't find many books more entertaining than this" - Flipside Magazine
Description
Ever wondered what the end of the Universe might actually look like? Why the number 42 is so significant? Or whether time travel really would put a stop to history as we know it? If so you are clearly a fan of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, now a major motion picture.
Much of the book was sheer whimsy: talking mattresses, the Vogons, triple-breasted whores and that Ol' Janx Spirit. But like all good science fiction, it contained more than a grain of scientific fact. Adams was a science and technology enthusiast and his books were inspired by - prefigured even - many of the great scientific debates of our times.
The Science of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a light-hearted, accessible and informative tour of the real cutting-edge research behind the corner-stones of a much-loved classic, including space tourism, parallel universes, instant translation devices, sentient computers and more.
Author Biographies
Michael Hanlon is one of Britain's most successful science writers. He has been Science Editor at The Daily Mail for more than four years; prior to this he was at The Daily Express, The Independent and Irish News. He contributes regularly to magazines such as The Spectator and New Statesman, and appears on TV and radio as a science pundit. He has written two popular science books to date: The Worlds of Galileo (Constable, 2001) and The Real Mars (Constable, 2004). Michael's writings have made him few friends in the alternative medicine industry, and his greatest fear is a return to the New Age.
Michael has helped London's Science Museum
put together an exhibition celebrating The Hitchhiker's Guide
To The Galaxy. For more information see http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/hitchhikers