1 Winter Is Coming—Or Is It? Seasons in Westeros
What Exactly Are Seasons?
Why Does Earth Have Seasons?
Very Elliptical Orbit
Moving Axis
Milankovitch Cycles
Two Suns?
So, What about Westeros?
2 And Now My Watch Begins: The Science of an Ice Wall
What Is Ice and How Does It Work?
The Amazing Pykrete
Ice on a Large Scale Is Basically Ketchup
The Great Wall of Westeros versus The Westernport Wall
3 North of the Wall: How to Survive in the Cold
Body Temperature Regulation
When Your Body Just Can’t Take It
Animal Fur (Evolution Is Amazing)
Keeping Humans Warm
Does Jon Snow Need a Hat?
4 White Walkers, Zombies, Parasites, and Statistics
What Is a Zombie, and Do Wights and White Walkers Count?
Neurology and Biology of Zombies
Zombie/Wight Rot
Zombie Neurology: What’s Going on in Their Heads?
Zombie Statistics and a Survival Plan: Can Westeros Get Out Alive?
Bonus: Zombie Dragons
5 Regular Steel, Made in Pittsburgh
Hard, Soft, Brittle, and Bendy: Why Steel?
Isolating Metals: Smelting and the Dawn of the Bronze Age
The Bronze and Iron Ages
From Steel to Swords
How Does It Do in the Cold?
Sam versus a White Walker, Take One
6 Valyrian Steel, Made in Damascus
Raw Materials: Crucible Steel and Wootz
Working Ingot: Not Europe’s Sharpest Moment
Really Ancient Technology Meets Really New Science
“Damascus” Steel on eBay
Valyrian Steel and White Walkers
7 Dragon Biology: Bats, but with Fire
Warm-Blooded or Cold-Blooded?
Airplane Flight
Birds and Bats and All That
Dinosaurs
Finally, Dragons
8 How to Kill a White Walker: The Physics of Dragonglass
Solid, Liquid, or Both? What Is Glass?
The Sad Case of the Pitch of John Mainstone
Obsidian
Sam versus a White Walker, Take Two
9 Harrenhal: Can Fire Melt Stone? Take Down a Wall?
What Is Fire?
How Might Dragons Make Fire?
Different Colors, Different Sizes
What Is Melting, and Can It Happen to Stone?
What about Harrenhal and Balerion the Black Dread?
Viserion’s Magic Fire
10 The Battle of the Blackwater: The Science of Wildfire
Water Doesn’t Always Beat Fire
The Dangers of Pollution
Modern Fire Weapons “Perfected”
Colored Fire
Greek Fire
11 Houses Targaryen and Lannister: The Genetics of a Family Tree with Few Branches
How Genes Work
How Traits Are Passed On
23 and You
Identifying Genetic Diseases with the Help of Incest
The Importance of Variety and the Problems Caused by the Lack of It
Finding the Balance between Alike and Different
Diagnosing a Mad King
12 We Do Not Sow: The Science of the Sea
Quick and Light versus Slow and Deadly
Picking Up Speed
Getting There
Drink Your OJ!
13 The King’s Justice: The Biology of a Gruesome Death
Beheading
A Golden Crown
Hanging
Poison
Crushing the Skull
Burning at the Stake
Drowning
So, What Type of Justice Would You Pick?