[Bullet Magnet]

Pedestrian? Not at all. Discworld is full of satirical references to highly complex scientific and social theories and histories. Whole books are based on them. In Pyramids, for instance, protagonist Teppic meets all the Discworld's Greek philosopher equivalents as they make all the same mistakes their real counterparts did. The Last Hero chart's the Discworld's first manned space flight (in which arrangements are actually made to return the Chelonauts alive to terra firma) and follows many of mankind's own space faring events.

Why, Discworld magic is clearly based on radiation, general and special relativity, quantum mechanics and particle theory. Even Death keeps running afoul of Heisenberg's Indeterminacy Principle. I could go on.