Description
Prepare to Be Fascinated!
- Why does the flu change every year?
- What makes glue sticky?
- What causes out-of-body experiences?
- Are all brands of gas the same?
- Will adult stem cells work as well as embryonic stem cells?
- Is one -horsepower- really equal to the power of one horse?
- Why can-t you sneeze with your eyes open?
- How much does a cremated body weigh?
These are just a few of the fascinating science and health questions real people have asked top science writer and San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Sherry Seethaler. Curious Folks Ask brings together 162 of her best answers-all crystal-clear, accurate, quick, and a pleasure to read. Seethaler knows exactly how to cut through jargon, confusion, and myths. She-s passionate about sharing what scientists have learned and what they still don-t know. She explores everything from our bodies to our best inventions: what makes us healthy, what makes us human, and plenty more. Prepare to be surprised, intrigued, and amazed!
Reviews
What a fun book ! Great for high school and middle school science teachers to make their classes more interesting !
Open the book to any page and you're bound to find a captivating question with a well-written and interesting answer. It's perfect for teachers wanting to add some spice to their lectures...and makes for an excellent gift for the budding genius of the family.
Here's a sampling of the questions:
Is a lightsaber (yes, the Star Wars sword) possible?
Why does my radio crackle with static or some other interference?
Since contact lenses move with your eyes as they move, how are bifocal contact lenses possible?
Why is it so difficult to make a hearing aid that works?
Why do certain electrical cords (those used by fans, in particular) curl over time? Certain others do not.
Why is the adhesiveness of white glues, such as Elmer's, stronger than that of glue sticks?
How come I can use cold water in my washing machine but I have to use hot water in my dishwasher?
Fun stuff!
Seethaler is a Science Writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry (University of Toronto), a M.S. in Biology (Yale) and the Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics Education (Univ. of California-Berkeley), thus, readers can be confident that her answers are based upon good data and reliable information sources.
Highly recommended for school, public and college library collections and consideration for gifts to bright, curious and inquisitive individuals of all ages.
R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University
Curiosity Rewarded
Can you define geophagy? What about zoopharmacognosy? I couldn't either until reading "Curious Folks Ask." Now I know why my dog sometimes eats dirt and that animals occasionally eat things for pharmacological reasons that are not normally part of their diets.
"Curious Folks Ask" is the book to read by the incurably curious, the hopelessly nescient, and even the pseudo-omniscient in need of humility and reality. The entire book is a collection of questions and answers organized into 8 categories: ingenious inventions, chemical concoctions, body parts, bodily functions, pesky pathogens, assorted ailments, uniquely human, and health nuts.
This reader likes Seethaler's book quite a bit. It's a book that one can read in a few sittings or read sporadically during the day to turn empty minutes into mini science lessons. If one has no interest in a question topic or finds it too difficult, one can skip and move on to the next one. I surprised myself by skipping very few questions, and even gave a cursory read to the "skipped" ones.
Some of Seethaler's answers seem to have been written by a politician. She begins on topic and somehow she disarmingly ends up on a somewhat related but different topic. Her book is so fascinating, however, that these few transgressions are easy to forgive.
In a nut shell, I enjoyed this book, learned from it, and would recommend it.
Too Simplistic for an adult
This would probably be a good book to give to a curious child up to about age 12. For a frequent reader of Wiki, this book had no mysteries for me, and I found the writing to be boring and felt the author failed to do any research on the subjects
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