Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries Reviews
Admin Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
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!
Rating: 
(out of 53 reviews)
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Tags: Amazing, Answers, Curious, Fascinating, Folks, Inventions, Medical, Mysteries, Products, Real, Reviews
5:08 am on November 7th, 2010
Review by R. Neil Scott for Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
Rating:
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
5:10 am on November 7th, 2010
Review by Spudman for Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
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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.
5:40 am on November 7th, 2010
Review by Bill Nicholas for Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
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In the movie Dragnet, Officer Friday’s partner asked him a question, and after a very long-winded answer he quipped, “Well, I know one thing for sure.” “What’s that?” “I’ll never ask that question again.” That’s how I felt sometimes with this book. Quality of the questions aside, I wish they took the advice given to Jimmy Carter after his first debate: Answer the question first, then explain. The answers too often start out with a complete history of the subject before they ever get to an answer. This type of book, I believe, needs to be quicker to the point.
6:23 am on November 7th, 2010
Review by James Beswick for Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
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This isn’t the sort of book you read cover to cover – rather like many “100 Things You Didn’t Know About” pop-science books, it’s great to turn to a random page and learn about something you’d likely never thought about. It’s been my casual bedtime reading for a couple of weeks now, and given me quite a few dinner party facts to start conversations (seriously).
Full credit goes to the author for taking some *very* mundane scientific explanations along the way and making them engaging and readable. She doesn’t spend much time stretching out the minutiae or laboring over details that most people should have learned at school, and cuts to the chase in a way that should keep both children and adults interested. From lightsabers to glue adhesives and hearing aids to contact lenses, there’s something here for everyone – definitely a great coffee table book!
7:20 am on November 7th, 2010
Review by Kimba W. Lion for Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries
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A book like this can give you a nice comfortable feeling–concise answers to unusual questions written in an authoritative tone can quickly wear away your natural curiosity, and you feel like you’re receiving a quick education.
But then you come to a subject you know well, and you may notice a minor mistake (such as, I have never seen a radio that used its power cord for AM reception, as Seethaler states; the cord is too short for that, but the power cord is commonly used for _FM_ reception), or something major, like a seemingly biased answer to a controversial subject (dismissing out-of-body experiences as mere brain farts [my simplification of the answer] based on _simulations_ of them via electrical stimulation does a disservice to those who have had experiences that cannot be fully explained that way–and the fact that the next ‘question’ in the book starts by congratulating the author on the previous answer makes that answer seem all the more biased).
Another reviewer described this book as a good bathroom book. I suppose that’s fair. The simpler the ‘question’ being answered, the more likely the answer is trustworthy. But on complex subjects, don’t make this book your one authoritative source.