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19th November, 2002

Open ocean

Filed under: Science, — bsag @ 09:12 PM

I’m currently reading “The Science of Discworld” by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. It’s a really fun and surprisingly thought-provoking book, using Discworld as a model to discuss important issues in science in our world (“Roundworld”). I might write a longer post on it later when I finish it, but one quote in particular (about Unseen University on Discworld) struck a chord:

“A university is very much like a coral reef. It provides calm waters and food particles for delicate yet marvellously constructed organisms that could not possibly survive in the pounding surf of reality, where people ask questions like, ‘Is what you do of any use?’ and other nonsense.” p. 142-143

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