The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works [Hardcover]

Roger Highfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2002

Magic and science may seem like strange bedfellows, but in this captivating and far-ranging book, respected science journalist Roger Highfield nimbly illustrates how the two disciplines are actually deeply intertwined in the Harry Potter books. Like Highfield's The Physics of Christmas, The Science of Harry Potter teases out the scientific explanations and surprising factual foundation of marvels and mysteries-only this time instead of reindeer and Santa, Highfield trains his eye on dragons, broomsticks, and all the wonderful oddities of J. K. Rowling's enchanted world. Highfield uses the amazing elements of the Harry Potter books as a springboard into discussions of fascinating scientific issues. He delves into the archaeology of witchcraft, tracing the origin and uses of wands and cauldrons as revealed at ancient European dig sites. He speculates on the astounding connection between hallucinogens and flying broomsticks and the bizarre drug-taking practices of medieval witches. The potions and charms that Harry has so much trouble replicating in Snape's class are in fact grounded in the science of ethnobotany. Here too is a plausible account of the cutting-edge physics that explains the invisibility cloak and the genetic engineering behind the creation of Fluffy the three-headed dog.

As Highfield reminds us, "wizard" actually means wise man-and wizardry and science were closely related fields before Newton. As enlightening as it is delightful, The Science of Harry Potter sheds light not only on Harry Potter's magical realm, but also on the magic that is taking place in labs and science classrooms in our own "muggle" world.

This book is not authorized, prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any other individual or entity associated with the Harry Potter books or movie. Harry Potter is the registered trademark of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British science writer Highfield (The Private Lives of Albert Einstein) takes on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series "to show how many elements of her books can be found in and explained by modern science." The result is an intelligent though odd attempt to straddle the imaginative worlds of science and fiction. Using Harry's magical world to "help illuminate rather than undermine science," Highfield splits the book in two: the first half a "secret scientific study" of everything that goes on at Potter's Hogwarts school, the second half an endeavor to show the origins of the "magical thinking" found in the books, whether expressed in "myth, legend, witchcraft or monsters." This division is an obvious attempt to duplicate the method and the popularity of his Physics of Christmas. Here, however, as intriguing as the concept is, the author isn't quite able to engage or entertain as he explores the ways in which Harry's beloved game of Quidditch resembles the 16th-century Mesoamerican game Nahualtlachti or how, by using Aztec psychotropic mushrooms, Mexican peyote cactus and other types of mind-altering fungi, even Muggles can experience their own magic. While interesting, the book reads more like an obsessive Ph.D. dissertation that fails to satisfy either of its target audiences: the children who read the books or the parents who buy them and often read them themselves.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"Science in the Harry Potter books?" "Yes," Highfield, science editor of London's Daily Telegraph, emphatically answers, approaching the topic in a thoroughly playful manner. He is dead serious, however, about using the Potter corpus as the launching pad for a wonderful foray into genetics, biology, quantum theory, behaviorism, mythology, folklore, and more, bolstered by drawing on and extrapolating from the work of a great variety of scientists and scholars. Magic, like science, he states, affords many insights into the workings of the human brain, which he designates as the greatest wizard of all. Whether dealing with flying broomsticks, Quidditch, or Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Highfield demonstrates how Muggle science has a leg up on many of the phenomena in Harry's world. The book's second half focuses more on the origins of magical thinking. Obviously well versed in the Potter books, Highfield deconstructs and reassembles them to make his points. Fans of such science popularizers as Gould and Asimov will certainly get a kick out of Highfield's utterly fascinating take on the subject. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First edition. edition (October 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670031534
• ISBN-13: 978-0670031535
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,325,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Highfield was born in Wales, raised in north London and became the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. He has written seven books, sat on a few committees and was the science editor of The Daily Telegraph for two decades. Today, he is the Editor of New Scientist magazine, the global science and technology weekly.
To contact Roger, see www.rogerhighfield.com
Follow Roger on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rogerhighfield

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific explanations for all things Harry Potter, December 6, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works (Paperback)

The initial quote from Clarke's Law, that the highest form of technology is indistinguishable from magic sets the basis for this book. And in reading the Harry Potter books and watching the movies, one can't help but wonder, how does that work in the world of Hogwarts? The bottom line is that the world of Hogwarts has got a technology that far surpasses 21st century technology, so to us, it does appear like magic. Think of what the Aztecs thought when Cortes and his men fired their guns. Surely they thought the guns were magic, as that was alien to their civilization.

The Science Of Harry Potter is the name of this book. What science, you might ask? Well, how about alchemy, astronomy, biology, genetics, physiology, quantum physics, time travel, And there's some more, like history and mythology, on where creatures like Fluffy the three-headed dog guarding the Sorcerer's Stone and games like Quidditch were based on. He also incorporates work from Einstein, Rutherford, Hawking, B.F. Skinner, John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) and Kip Thorne from the Muggle side.

The Sorting Hat, which sent the first-year Hogwarts students into their respective houses, might have had some interface that interpreted brain waves from the students, but there's also the concept of recognizing personalities a la Jung or Keirsey, so I wonder if the Hat's technology can correlate the brain's wiring with that of a Guardian, Rational, Idealist, or Artisan, to use Keirsey's classifications, and then say "Gryffindor" or "Slytherin."

The theory of time travel in the Muggle world is that one can't go back in time before the machine was built, and also to prevent a mistaken killing of one's ancestors, because then one would be erased from existence. Hogwarts technicians must've overcome that glitch. Hey, if it's possible in Dr. Who, why not in Harry Potter?

However, the fact that Nicolas Flamel is based on a real life 14th century alchemist and that Queen Elizabeth I's conjurer John Dee was the inspiration for Albus Dumbledore will jerk some eyes open.

As for an example of a psychological aspect of Harry Potter, Highfield uses bereavement syndrome to explain the Mirror of Erised, with the mirror as an output device that's receptive to the brain's trauma-ridden visions.

Apart from using J.K. Rowling's first four books, Roger Highfield exhaustively used respected biology, psychology, physics, and medical journals, and history books as his sources.

If one is of a highly fantastical and romantic nature, not wanting to spoil the magic of Harry Potter by possible scientific explanations, go elsewhere. Those who are able to accept Clarke's Law and assimilate these theories into the Harry Potter universe without it spoiling the magic, this book's for you. Well, time to put on my silvery cross-connected fiber-optic cape that records images from the background over me. See ya.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discussions of scientific and historical issues, January 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works (Hardcover)

The Harry Potter books are used here as an interesting and attention engaging foundation for sound and informative discussions of scientific and historical issues ranging from connections between hallucinogens and flying sensations to the science of ethnobotany. Readers of Harry Potter will find within the pages of The Science Of Harry Potter a set of lively scientific insights which go far from Harry's fictional fantasy realm to the world of real science.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engages kids in bleeding-edge science, March 5, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works (Paperback)

I am a kid who is quite up-to-date in science. I have always enjoyed the fact that I am more knowledgeable about topics like teleportation, time travel, game theory, etc. than my peers.

Now I'm afraid. Very afraid.

Why? Because with this book, anyone even moderately interested in Harry Potter can easily learn all the interesting stuff I have found by wading through lots of boring science.

This book attempts to use Harry Potter as an introduction to the far more fascinating and wonderful world of science -- and succeeds brilliantly. If there are parents out there whose child has an interest in Harry Potter and would like their child to develop an interest in science, this is the book for you.

This book uses Harry Potter as a medium to engage children in bleeding-edge science, and is good at it.