What If?2
Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Published on 31. August 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-1-3998-1114-9 (ISBN)
Description
'Nerd royalty' Ben Goldacre
'Laugh-out-loud funny' Bill Gates
'Totally brilliant' Tim Harford
WHAT IF you still had so many more strange questions about the universe?
And WHAT IF Randall Munroe, former NASA roboticist and xkcd creator, were prepared to move mountains, fill the solar system with soup and alter the space-time continuum to answer them?
Whether it's how to make a lava lamp out of lava or feeding the inhabitants of New York to a T. Rex, welcome to the weird, wonderful (and sometimes terrifying) world of WHAT IF? 2
'Laugh-out-loud funny' Bill Gates
'Totally brilliant' Tim Harford
WHAT IF you still had so many more strange questions about the universe?
And WHAT IF Randall Munroe, former NASA roboticist and xkcd creator, were prepared to move mountains, fill the solar system with soup and alter the space-time continuum to answer them?
Whether it's how to make a lava lamp out of lava or feeding the inhabitants of New York to a T. Rex, welcome to the weird, wonderful (and sometimes terrifying) world of WHAT IF? 2
Reviews / Votes
PRAISE FOR WHAT IF? Nerd royalty Brilliant * Rolling Stone * With this book you're a kid with a chemistry set all over again...required reading for grown-ups * Register * Smart answers to silly questions: Randall Munroe reveals all * Guardian * PRAISE FOR WHAT IF? 2 Randall Munroe [is] the guru of absurd science questions . . . What If ?2 is stuffed with questions that are fanciful in the asking, but perfectly - and playfully - informative in the answering. The questions throughout are equal parts brilliant, gross, and wonderfully absurd and the answers are thorough, deeply researched, and great fun. Do you need any of this information? No. Are you happy - indeed, delighted - to have it? Almost certainly yes. Science isn't easy, but in Munroe's capablehands, it surely can be fun. * Time Magazine * One of my favourite books of the year. * Financial Times * Head-scratching . . . seemingly simple conundrums lead to the most fascinating of rabbit holes. * WIRED * *Staff's Favourite Books of 2022* A dense litany of thoroughly researched explanations of intensely silly hypotheticals. Perfect if you enjoy it when stuffy figures of authority crack a smile. Or if you like it when black holes form. That happens a lot. * Newsweek * One of my favourite books of the yearMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
298 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3998-1114-9 (9781399811149)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Randall Munroe is the creator of the webcomic xkcd and bestselling author of What If?, Thing Explainer and xkcd: Volume 0. Randall was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and grew up outside Richmond, Virginia. After studying physics at Christopher Newport University, he got a job building robots at NASA Langley Research Center. In 2006 he left NASA to draw comics on the internet full time, and has since been nominated for a Hugo Award three times. The International Astronomical Union recently named an asteroid after him: asteroid 4942 Munroe is big enough to cause mass extinction if it ever hits a planet like Earth.