Almost fifty years after he first crossed the small screen, Doctor Who remains a science fiction touchstone. His exploits are thrilling, his world is mind-boggling, and that time travel machine-known as the Tardis-is almost certainly an old-fashioned blue police box, once commonly found in London. Paul Parsons's plain-English account of the real science behind the fantastic universe portrayed in the Doctor Who television series provides answers to such burning questions as whether a sonic screwdriver is any use for putting up a shelf, how Cybermen make little Cybermen, where the toilets are in the Tardis, and much more. Taking the show as a starting point-episode-by-episode in some cases-Parsons dissects its scientific concepts.
In addition to explaining why time travel is possible and just how that blue police box works, Parsons * discusses who the Time Lords are and how we may one day be able to regenerate just like them* ponders the ways that the doctor's two hearts might work and introduces us to a terrestrial animal with five* details the alien populations and cosmology of the Whovian Universe and relates them to what we currently know about our universe* compares the robotics of the show with startlingly similar real-world applications This slender, equation-free discussion is penned by a Ph.D. cosmologist and is ideal beach reading for anyone who loves science and watches the show-no matter which planet the beach is on.
- ISBN13 9780801895609
- Publish Date 10 August 2010
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 21 December 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 328
- Language English
- URL http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801895609&qty=1&viewMode=1&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y