★ I think I might just have a touch of writers block! ★
★ I think I might just have a touch of writers block! ★
Member since:06.01.2006
Reviews:57
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~~ Why I bought this book ~~
Many years ago, when I was at Uni, I used to subscribe to New Scientist. There was a general consensus of opinion that it was the right thing to read, and I'm afraid to say that I went along with the flow. I was doing a Science degree, but I have to say that I found some of the articles rather tricky to understand, especially the ones based on physics, which I'm afraid baffles me. The one part of the New Scientist magazine that always appealed to me was 'The Last Word' which was basically a reader's column of science questions that they would like answering. They were about absolutely anything, and a variety of people from scientists to non scientist used to try and answer them
When I saw this book in Waterstones, it was on offer. I was immediately struck by the title. It is a question I have asked "does anything eat wasps? along with the next obvious question "why would they bother?" I then saw the New Scientist logo in the top left hand corner, and very nearly put the book back, thinking that
it would be too scientific for me.
However, I turned the book over and read the blurb on the back. The very next question that this book posed was "How long can I live on beer alone?" and within minutes I was in the queue to buy this book!
~~ About the Book ~~
In the introduction the book explains that these are the best questions from the last eleven years of the Last Word column. It also provides a link to the magazine so that you can ask your own questions or indeed answer someone else's. www.newscientist.com/lastword.ns
This book is divided into 8 sections: 1 Our bodies 2 Plants and animals 3 Domestic Science 4 Our universe 5 Our planet 6 Weird weather 7 Troublesome transport 8 Best of the rest
There are 102 questions, apparently, although they are not numbered and I have not checked whether this is true.
There is also a very useful index, for people like me who like to dip into non fiction books to read the best bits first!
Each question has a question mark by it and is followed by a snappy title such as 'blubber bullets' (which is a question about how fat you would have to be in order to be bullet-proof!) The question then follows and is in italics. There are normally at least a couple of answers, giving the reader the opportunity to think for themselves, or a pointer for how they would research the answer more fully.
~~ Things that make you go yuck! ~~
There are a number of questions that are quite honestly not very pleasant. Here is a taster of a few of them...
"My doctor tells me that the fungus that causes athletes foot tends to occur between the third and fourth toes...." This was answered by the Department of Biomedical Engineering in Texas A&M University.
"What affects the different shading of earwax?" I'm afraid that I skipped this one, as I felt that I could live my life without knowing the answer!
Most of these feature in the Our Bodies Section of the book.
~~ Things that make you go hooray! ~~
There is a question about whether black trousers can actually make your bum look smaller. Very useful indeed! (Yes it can!!!)
"How much of the surface area of the UK is taken up by roads" I always wondered about this, so it is a great relief to have it answered!
~~ Things that make you think ~~
"How can oceanographers tell the average depth of the ocean?" This was one of those questions that I hadn't even thought about until I read it. Then it made me want to ask many more questions about the answer.
"Does beheading hurt?" Not something I had ever thought of before, but I found the answer strangely compelling.
I would put all the questions into this category, as they all made me think!
~~ My Opinion ~~
This review is littered with my opinion, but to sum it up I really enjoyed reading this book. I did dip into sections, and read what I thought would be the best bits first. Some of the answers are more technical or scientific than others; however they are all fairly easy to read and comprehend. It is not the most scientific of books, and indeed is classified as science/ humour. The answers are generally unproven in the true scientific nature. However there are some questions which are answered with a link to previous articles in New Scientist or other Scientific papers, so anyone interested enough could easily delve further.
I really enjoyed the weird weather section of this book as it is something that interests me, but that I have little actual knowledge about. There are questions about why you can't always make snowballs, how you could calculate how much water a cloud can hold and which trees are most likely to be struck by lightning.
The book offers an unwitting insight into human beings. We love to ask questions, and we love being the person who knows the answers. This book actually made me remember what it was that I like about science.
The question about how long you can live on beer was not very scientifically answered. There were some sound theories, but I feel that maybe this needs to be the subject of a proper experiment.
~~ Technical Info ~~
Printed by profile books Price £7.99, although much cheaper when bought on offer or in supermarkets Classified as Science/ Humour ISBN 1-86197-973-8 218 pages
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
How the heck did I miss not reading this before. Definitely the sort of book I would enjoy delving into especially when contemplating life whilst in the loo. x
imogen49 21.05.2007 17:03
Sounds like a delve into type of book.
rednirt 06.03.2007 11:31
I mistakenly bought the second book in the series first - this sounds like a good buy too. Nice review.
How long can I live on beer alone? Why do people have eyebrows? Has nature invented any ... more
wheels? Plus 99 other questions are answered in this book. Every year readers send in thousands of questions to "New Scientist" the world's best-selling science w...
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Mar 19th, 2006
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