Science Without the Boring Bits: A Curious Chronology of Discovery, Invention and Wild Speculation - Rilegato

Crofton, Ian

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1848660561 ISBN 13: 9781848660564

Casa editrice: Quercus Publishing, 2010

Riassunto

Forget Boyle's law, polymer chains, cellular respiration and fields of force - here's all the really interesting stuff you never learnt during science lessons at school. But this isn't fantasy, this is hard fact: * Fact: The stethoscope owes its invention in 1816 to a young doctor who was too embarrassed to put his ear to a young woman's chest; * Fact: In 1954 a Soviet surgeon grafted a puppy's head onto the shoulder of a German shepherd dog; * Fact: Since falling off a ship in 1992, fleets of yellow rubber ducks have provided invaluable data on the currents of the world's oceans. Science Without the Boring Bits covers all the important (and some of the totally unimportant) branches of science: * Physics: from experiments involving the slow removal of one's stockings to the Dutchman who tested the Doppler effect by placing an entire orchestra on a railway wagon; * Zoology: from the spontaneous generation of mice from rotting wheat to the 'discovery' that swallows spend their winters at the bottom of lakes; * Botany: from the rhododendron honey that makes men mad to the use of ginger as an equine suppository; * Meteorology: from showers of frogs and fish to the man struck by lightning seven times; * Astronomy: from the Greek philosopher who believed the sun was a great disk of blazing metal to the American astronomer who saw irrigation canals on Mars.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Ian Crofton's authorial credits include The Totally Useless History of the World, The Kings and Queens of England, The Disappeared and Traitors and Turncoats. He has also written on science for a younger audience, co-authoring Deserts and Semideserts and Atoms and Elements in the Young Oxford Library of Science.

Dalla seconda/terza di copertina:

Bored with Ohm's Law? Sick of statistics? Had it with Avogadro's number? Does entropy fill you with ennui, do globulins inspire in you nothing but gloom? Then you're in need of a dose of Science Without the Boring Bits! This chronology of scientific curiosities comprises a host of cranky theories, crackpot experiments, crazed professors, questionable quacks, mischievous pranksters, deluded pundits, and a priceless host of wild and baseless speculations. Read all about Soviet attempts to create an ape-human hybrid... Sir John Herschel's belief in the nutritional value of sawdust... Darwin's investigation of the musicality of earthworms... the distinguished French physician who injected himself with guinea-pig testicles... the man who worried that tidal power might pull the Moon dangerously close to the Earth... the experiment that claimed to show that the soul weighs precisely 21 grams. These are just a few of the colourful and astonishing stories contained within the covers of Science Without the Boring Bits, from the sublime to the absolutely ridiculous - with the emphasis firmly on the latter.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Quercus Publishing
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1848660561
• ISBN 13: 9781848660564
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 352