Customer Reviews

The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I gather this author makes a career of being a "debunker" of sorts. Little does he know that he's missing the point of the Potter series in many, many ways.

However, if one is trying to interest a child/teen in science, and that child already loves Harry Potter, this book may be helpful.

Just steer clear of the section on "The Origins of Witchcraft." It's poorly thought out, badly researched, contains misinformation, and is proof of the adage that one can't see what one isn't looking at. This author isn't looking. He should have stuck to the science stuff and left the rest of it alone.

If your kid hates science and loves Harry Potter, I give it five stars because of its potential to interest a child in science. If you are looking for intelligent commentary on Harry Potter's "world," I give it no stars. I'll average that out to three stars.

This book is for people who enjoy reading about what people have tried/done in the past and what people will be trying and doing in the future

This book is not really directed towards children more to someone who enjoys reading about science. From start to finish a lot of names, ideas, experiments, and questions are given. A great read for anyone who likes to wonder. This book provokes hundreds of what if questions and the reader is left to just wonder how the world would be with these things.

The thoughts and ideas in this book are LOOSELY based on the 'magic' in Harry Potter. The ideas in the Harry Potter books are expanded and talked about at great length with not only what if questions but how scientists in the past and present are (without first seeing it in Harry Potter) trying to achieve real life 'magic'

This book does an amazing job introducing the "magical" world of science. I am amazed at the author`s research and discussion of emerging scientific fields--such as levitation and teleportation--in layman`s terms. Anyone with science or Harry Potter in his/her heart will love this book. Sit back and relax and enjoy the tid bits of information the author offers. However, if you expect the author to stay on topic, totally relate to the Harry Potter books, or draw any comprehensible conclusions...you will only frustrate yourself. Ignore the writing style and enjoy the wealth of information.

Roger Highfield is to be commended for his solid scientific
work in this clever and informative book. His obvious
knowledge in many fields of science in combination with
his discussions of old myths and legends are a delight to read.

And he certainly knows his Harry Potter stories, and admires
them as much as I do! Dr. Highfield manages to inform us and
amuse us with his sly references to the Rowling characters.
And yes - I am over the age of 13 - by 63 years!!

I suspect that this was written as a gentle way of introducing scientific facts to younger readers. The Harry Potter books were written with something else in mind, and beyond sheer entertainment, give some interesting insights to the complexity of life, particularly as one grows up.

By examining the various phenomena described in the Harry Potter books, Dr. Highfield discusses how some of them can be explained or approximated by technology. However, the subtitle, "How Magic Really Works," is extremely misleading, since the explanations effectively sidestep magic whatsoever.

Dr. Highfield is clearly familiar with the Harry Potter books, through the Half-Blood Prince, but some of his speculations drift away from the stories, such as his antigravity thoughts about broomstick riding.

Mixing speculations about magic with the latest understandings of scientific theory is chancy at best, particularly since Ms. Rowling's examples of magic are at slight variance with traditional lore on the subject.

For youngsters, the book may be a mixed bag, since the "magic" stimulating their imagination about wizardry is presented as being achievable, in theory, by muggle technology.

For older readers, particularly those with some nodding acquaintence with current scientific theories, the book is entertaining, like something the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke might have written.

The glossary is a high point.

I'm only partway through this, so bear with me... The basic structure of the book so far is: XXX happens in Harry Potter's world. Here's some real-life science that is tangentially related...

Here are some examples:

"Wizards are able to teleport or 'aparate', sometimes using portkeys, like Harry when he won the Triwizard Cup. Maybe portkeys function by creating wormholes in the space-time continuum. Or maybe they make use of technology used by real-life scientists who have 'teleported' a photon from one side of a lab to the other. Such technology will probably never be able to teleport a whole person."

"Wizards at Hogwarts are sorted into houses by the Sorting Hat. It must read thoughts somehow. Real-life scientists can use functional magnetic resonance imaging to see what is happening in the brain when a person thinks. Scientists aren't at the point yet where they can read thoughts like the Sorting Hat, and they may never be able to."

"After the wizards are sorted into houses, how does that society function, given that the young wizards of Slytherin House tend to be evil, including Voldemort, the evilest of evil wizards? Real-life economists use something called 'game theory' to describe similar situations. A classic example is the Prisoner's dilemma. Imagine that Professor Dumbledore catches Harry and his archrival Malfoy's chum Crabbe. One of them has committed a serious offense that could cost their house points. He offers each one of them a deal..."

"Owls deliver mail at Hogwarts. In real life, owls have some amazing senses and abilities. Owls are not really that smart, but real-life scientists have trained parrots to do some amazing things..."

So basically there are a bunch of things in science that the author thinks are cool, and he uses Harry Potter as an excuse to talk about them. He does a decent job of describing the science. But the Harry Potter references are pretty gratuitous. This could just as easily be "The Science of Star Wars" where Wookie language and society as an excuse to talk about game theory, and Luke's land speeder as an excuse to talk about some sketchy antigravity research.

My Book review
The book I chose to read is called The Sciences of Harry Potter by Roger Highfield. Highfield makes ties and connections between the magic in Harry Potter to science. I thought this book was excellent and very interesting. He brought up so many ties and justifications between the actual connections between the science world and the magic world of Harry Potter. For someone who may not be interested in biology or really understand the concepts of biology, this book puts so many things in an understandable perspective. It was such an easy read, because whenever he would name a complicated biology term, he would explain exactly what it meant in an easy way so that everyone would understand. I just thought the whole concept of the book was so funny and intriguing. When people who love Harry Potter but hate biology see the title of this book, I think they would be instantly interested to read it.
This book wasn't in the form of story and didn't have a plot; it was more of an information based book. Each chapter was based around the different magical aspects of Harry Potter and how it somehow relates to science. Although this book didn't have a story, it was about the Harry Potter series, and I don't know many people who don't like Harry Potter, and if you don't it is still neat how Highfield talks about so many aspects of magic and how it relates to science. So in a way the book walks you through the story of Harry Potter, just in a more scientific way.
The book was not in the form of the story as I said previously, but it was written in a very philosophical way Highfield was pondering all the ways in which science and the magic in Harry Potter relate to each other, and if events that happen in the movie can actually happen in real life. For example he was talking about the owls and how they deliver mail in the movie. They would travel long distances to deliver mail to their owners. Highfield goes on to describe the different species that the characters in the movie were, and if they were actually capable to even carry mail, and how big they were. He also describes that in reality the owls don't actually make good pets, they are better off in the wild, like the rest of the wild animals. He also talks about Fluffy the three headed dog could possibly be explained by molecular biology. These are just a few of the ideas and thoughts that Highfield talks about.
I would definitely recommend this book to read. Anyone who likes Harry Potter, or the thought of magic, or even science and biology, you would enjoy this book. It was very informative, but also had a humor to it. It was about characters and ideas that people know, but turned into an education science book. The author knew exactly what he was talking about and had many thoughts and a deeper and higher order of thinking about the topics. I really enjoyed the book and I learned a lot about things I would never think of. Over all it was a great book and an interesting topic.