Game of Thrones Author Co-Writes Physics Paper on Superhero Virus

Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Ian Tregillis and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin have published a physics paper deriving a mathematical model for the Wild Cards virus, a fictional pathogen that kills 90% of those infected while granting survivors either mutations ("Jokers") or superpowers ("Aces").

Published in the American Journal of Physics (February 2025), their paper develops a Lagrangian formulation to explain how the virus maintains its consistent "90:9:1" statistical distribution. The model accounts for both observable cases and hypothetical "crypto" carriers with undetectable effects.

The authors propose treating viral outcomes as a dynamical system, using concepts from ergodic theory and classical mechanics. The resulting model combines Lagrangian mechanics, functional analysis, and probability theory to distill the complex viral behavior into a single mathematical expression.

Never

[OverlordQ]

Those books never getting finished

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

"Wild Cards" is actually an ongoing series of stories where the premise was created by Martin, but the stories themselves are written by other authors - the "Wild Cards Consortium". I think Martin is gatekeeper for who can be a member of the consortium.

A lot of the stories are quite good.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Those books never getting finished

George keeps himself pretty busy rolling in large, fat stacks of cash from the show that pretty much ruined the promise of the books. And, as someone who has done his share of writing, if I watched one of my babies get run through the ringer like that by someone else, I'd probably turn my attentions elsewhere as well. It's not like he's not writing other properties at any given moment. Or consulting on the never-ending stream of other things going on around Song of Ice & Fire.

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[Rinnon]

And, as someone who has done his share of writing, if I watched one of my babies get run through the ringer like that by someone else, I'd probably turn my attentions elsewhere as well.

Wouldn't it have been great if HBO had the self-restraint to just... pause when they reached the end of what was written instead of churning out.... that ending? I would have preferred no ending: just leave the community speculating for all time. It could have been living rent free in our heads for an age, or at least until George actually finished it. Alas.

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[nightflameauto]

And, as someone who has done his share of writing, if I watched one of my babies get run through the ringer like that by someone else, I'd probably turn my attentions elsewhere as well.

Wouldn't it have been great if HBO had the self-restraint to just... pause when they reached the end of what was written instead of churning out.... that ending? I would have preferred no ending: just leave the community speculating for all time. It could have been living rent free in our heads for an age, or at least until George actually finished it. Alas.

It's too bad that will be the lasting legacy of the entire property, that's for certain.

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[Zocalo]

GRRM's new business plan: work on anything else other than ASoIaF books, where "work" means letting someone else doing almost all of the heavy lifting while you attach your name to it as an "Executive Producer", "Co-Author" or some such and take a hefty slice of any profits, PR, and other kudos. It clearly pays well enough (possibly even better than writing the next two ASoIaF books) and I'd assume it's far less stressful.

Can't say I blame him, but he's clearly just taking the piss out of his fans at th

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[Zak3056]

both ideally before he croaks so we don't get another Dune/Wheel of Time

Sanderson tied up the series better than Jordan could have.

Getting closer, back to lab...

[Tablizer]

If Ian figures out how to raise dragons who can eat certain politicians and moguls, he gets 10 Nobel prizes.

Physics?

[Roger W Moore]

I have no idea how a paper about a non-existent fictional virus co-authored by a fantasy writer counts as physics but, now the Nobel Prize for Physics seems to have been lost to computer science I admire this innovative attempt to capture the Nobel Prize for Literature to replace it.

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[mistergrumpy]

Everyone needs a hobby ...

This is The American Journal of Physics (formerly The American Physics Teacher) we're talking about. It's an undergraduate level journal with an impact factor of 0.8. Pretty harmless way to spend one's spare time.

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[Roger W Moore]

Yes, but normally that journal is used to publish papers related to teaching physics to undergrads such as interesting new ways to solve a "standard" problem, interesting new ways to demonstrate physicsl, better ways to explain physics concepts etc. I've not seen it used to publish an analysis of science fiction before, especially when the fiction is about microbiology. This strikes me as material for a coffee table book, Lawrence Krauss wrote one on the Physics of Star Trek a while ago, not for a scientifi

Winter is coming....

[Digital Avatar]

...any day now, you guys. Seriously. Just you wait.

These books are never getting finished.

This is a very old story

[Revek]

I've read a story like like with the same outcomes. Jokers and aces and bunch of melted people. Set in the 50's.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

In the Wild Cards universe, the initial virus release happened right after World War II. Some of the stories are set back then, but others occur in more recent decades.

When will it be a mini-series?

[Required Snark]

It's only a matter of time. It may have already been optioned by now.