The Odd Brain: Mysteries of Our Weird and Wonderful Brains Explained
Dr. Juan is that rarest of rarities, a scholar with a sense of humor. He fearlessly tours the brain’s mysterious corridors, discussing such wide-ranging topics as phobias, compulsive water drinking, serial killers, the secrets of hypnotism, and the man who thought he was a cat. You will find this book absolutely engrossing.Do kleptomaniacs have a legitimate excuse to …
Have you ever fallen victim to Murphy’s law? Sometimes bad things just happen. In Why Sh*t Happens, esteemed British scientist Peter J. Bentley takes readers on an informative and amusing tour through the least lucky, most accident-prone day of their lives. From sleeping through the alarm clock and burning breakfast to getting caught in the rain and navigating …
From Personal Ads to Cloning Labs: More Science Cartoons from Sidney Harris
Harris’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Playboy, and Discover. Now the author of Einstein Simplified and You Want Proof? I’ll Give You Proof strikes again. “WHat’s so funny about science? Sidney Harris, that’s what!”–Isaac …
100% Pure Fake: Gross Out Your Friends and Family with 25 Great Special Effects!
Parents, beware of this book. With 100% Pure Fake, the art of scaring the pants off friends and family reaches new levels of ease and sophistication. Pranksters can now amaze, alarm and totally disgust everyone with these easy-to-make Pure Fakes. These 25 safe, kid-tested recipes that can be made with ingredients found in most households, including corn …
Petit Point: A Candid Portrait on the Aberrations of Science
In this fascinating book, Nobel Prize winner Pierre-Gilles de Gennes wittily captures the lives of personalities from both the academic and the industrial world in delightful bite-size stories. Most of the characters in this collection are like those in Aesop’s fables, but in modern-day research settings. The book provides a critical account of aberrations (fortunately rare) of …
This book discusses the fun side of the quest to develop fusion energy-a modern equivalent of the hunt for the Holy Grail. After more than 70 years of research, despite great progress, the goal has not been realized. Do you have to be crazy to love quests like this? Not really, but you do have to have an …
Wind, rain, soft drifting snowflakes and burning sunshine: all kids wonder what makes the weather what it is. How can we predict whether there will be blue skies or rain tomorrow? Where do clouds come from? Why do we have thunder and lightning? Answer all these questions and more with entertaining experiments geared to youngsters in the second …
This Book Warps Space and Time: Selections from The Journal of Irreproducible Results
The Journal of Irreproducible Results is the funniest thing to happen to science since Archimedes ran naked through the streets of Syracuse.” –DiscoverScience humor magazine The Journal of Irreproducible Results has targeted “hypocrisy, arrogance, and ostentatious sesquipedalian circumlocution” since 1955.JIR editor Norman Sperling presents humorous and quirky tidbits relating to science, math, academia, bureaucracy, and witty word play. …
A light-hearted look at the nature of academic science, intended for anyone interested in biology but particularly for biology students who want to find out what the future holds in store. The “Egg” of the title refers to the science of developmental biology, which is the speciality of the author, and which provides the material for many of …
The creators of Ask Dr. Science, a parody question-and-answer series aired daily on public radio, explain such domestic “”truths”” as why we should build fires in the summer to save heat. 25,000 first printing. $20,000 …