Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries, Rough Cuts

Description

• Copyright 2010
• Dimensions: 6 X 9
• Pages: 224
• Edition: 1st

• Rough Cuts
• ISBN-10: 0-13-705280-4
• ISBN-13: 978-0-13-705280-6

This is a working draft of a pre-release book. It is available before the published date as part of the Rough Cuts service.

“Dr. Seethaler has written an excellent book for any interested student of science. She answers great questions about the world around us in this fascinating book. As a high school science teacher, I encounter many of these from my own students. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has pondered questions starting with ‘how,’ ‘what,’ or ‘why.’”

–Ernest James Lo, Science Teacher, Woodside High School, Woodside, CA

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 is one of this generation’s best science explainers, and it shows: Every answer is accurate, fun to read, and distilled to a single page or less! Want to know how canned air works…or nuclear bombs? What causes goose bumps, earwax, dandruff, headaches? Whether it’s healthy to crack your knuckles, drink decaf, eat chocolate? What it costs to run all those LED lights around your house? It’s all here–and a whole lot more!

• Your body’s oddities: knees to knuckles, itches to sneezes
  Surprising facts about how your body grows and works
• Our ingenious inventions
  The past, present, and future of our relentless human inventiveness
• Pesky pathogens: viruses, bacteria, and prions
  How they keep outsmarting us, and why it’s so hard to stay healthy
• Common chemical concoctions
  The science behind the everyday products that have transformed our lives
• Uniquely human: how we got here, how we’re unique
  New lessons from genetics, archaeology, and evolutionary biology

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Sample Content

Table of Contents

Preface . . . xv

Chapter 1 Ingenious inventions . . . 1

Iceless icebox . . . 1

Full of cold air . . . 1

May the Force be with you . . . 2

Sci-fi science . . . 3

Catching a wave . . . 4

Out, damned spot! . . . 5

Glass stretch marks . . . 6

Seeing double . . . 7

Say what? . . . 8

On the road again . . . 9

Kooky clocks . . . 10

Lost with digital . . . 11

Era arrangement . . . 12

Let there be light . . . 12

Temperature tales . . . 14

Spying on Martians . . . 15

Otherworldly . . . 15

Earthling outpost . . . 16

Man or machine . . . 18

Play ball . . . 19

Pharaoh’s secrets . . . 20

Dense edifice . . . 22

Tiny toys . . . 23

Twinkle, twinkle . . . 24

Curly cords . . . 25

Mr. Weasley’s collection . . . 25

Electric synchrony . . . 27

In chains . . . 28

Equine engine . . . 29

Man’s best friend v. 2.0 . . . 30

Taking to the sky . . . 31

Off-kilter . . . 33

Architecture by numbers . . . 33

Chapter 2 Chemical concoctions . . . 35

Sticky situations . . . 35

Strong bond . . . 37

Black gold . . . 37

What’s in a name? . . . 38

Auto alternatives . . . 40

Sugar high . . . 41

Water fire . . . 42

Periodic-table personalities . . . 44

Jolt-free beans . . . 45

Decaf danger? . . . 46

Gently down the stream . . . 47

Water, water everywhere . . . 48

Reticent rubber . . . 49

On top of Old Smoky . . . 50

Odor eater . . . 51

Exquisite earth . . . 51

Drug disintegration . . . 53

Lone nutrients . . . 54

Rub-a-dub-dub . . . 55

Chore tech . . . 56

Chapter 3 Body parts . . . 59

Toe the line . . . 59

Surgeons’ favorite organ . . . 61

Longer and longer . . . 62

Tough tips . . . 62

Ashes to ashes . . . 63

Holey lids . . . 64

Producing peepers . . . 64

Guardian lashes . . . 65

Stopping short . . . 66

Grating habit . . . 66

Local harvest . . . 68

Cell selection . . . 68

Whiter shade of pale . . . 70

Healing potion . . . 71

Replacement parts . . . 72

Not so wise . . . 73

Chapter 4 B

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