What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

"Smart answers to silly questions: Randall Munroe reveals all"
– Guardian

"A masterclass and a great deal of fun [...] Like all the best lessons, you only realise how much you've learnt once you've finished it"
– The Economist

"I love XKCD's What If – 'Dear Abby for mad scientists'"
– Neil Gaiman

"With this book, you're a kid with a chemistry set all over again [...] required reading for all grown-ups and a fun reminder that science is really, really cool."
– Register

"Essential"
– Nature

"Expert research and accessible wit [...] a favourite among both geeks and laymen"
– Time

"Brilliant"
– Rolling Stone

"Delightfully free-wheeling and whimsical [...] despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, you really don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy What If?"
– Entertainment Weekly

"Brilliant, funny and fascinating"
– Graeme le Saux, Daily Express

"The best bathroom book you'll ever buy [...] Eminently approachable and full of beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences. The physics is real; and so is the emotional content"
– Newsweek

"It will satisfy the curious and arouse curiosity in anyone who's not – and it's got great jokes"
– Irish Times

"Totally brilliant"
– Tim Harford

"XKCD is nerd royalty, the alpha dork, there's no geek more widely cited and loved"
– Ben Goldacre

"What If? is brilliant, scientifically rigorous and utterly absurd [...] It. Is. A. Triumph"
– Boingboing

"Fantastic [...] What If? has solved my gift dilemmas for a large group of people [...] Here's a "What If?" question from me: What if everyone on the planet simultaneously bought a copy of this book, stopped what they were doing and read it cover to cover, would modern civilization and our global economy collapse? It's an experiment worth trying"
– Huffington Post

"Wonderful and incredibly fun"
– American Scientist

"Thoughtful, scientific, and highly entertaining"
– Parade

"If you're the kind of person whose brain whizzes with questions, What If? may calm the noise. Randall Munroe's done all the hard work for you"
– Shortlist

"Dangerously absorbing [...] I could not think of a better book"
– Varsity

"The reader is left constantly subject to outbursts of laughter, lin gering doubts concerning the sanity of the human race, and an ever-growing fascination with the way our world and the universe works [...] Though science geeks will be the first to acknowledge Munroe's greatness, even people suffering from a chronic hatred towards anything concerned with math will find the humour and absurdity of What If? hard to resist"
– The Student