title: Weird Science and Bizarre Beliefs: Mysterious Creatures, Lost Worlds and Amazing Inventions
author:  Gregory L. Reece 
description: <DIV><DIV>&#8220;A wide-ranging and surprising account of some of the wilder and woollier areas of human belief and the outer limits of credulity.&#8221; --Louis Theroux</DIV><DIV> </DIV></DIV>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  # Discworld 12 - Witches Abroad
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is the Discworld, which travels through space on the back of four
  elephants which themselves stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the sky turtle.
  
  
  Once upon a time such a universe was considered unusual and, possibly,
  impossible.
  
  
  But then ... it used to be so simple, once upon a time.
  
  
  Because the universe was full of ignorance all around and the scientist panned
  through it like a prospector crouched over a mountain stream, looking for the
  gold of knowledge among the gravel of unreason, the sand of uncertainty and
  the little whiskery eight-legged swimming things of superstition.
  
  
  Occasionally he would straighten up and say things like 'Hurrah, I've
  discovered Boyle's Third Law.' And everyone knew where they stood. But the
  trouble was that ignorance became more interesting, especially big fascinating
  ignorance about huge and important things like matter and creation, and people
  stopped patiently building their little houses of rational