Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?
Author: New Scientist
Publisher: John Murray
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 147365131X

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? is the latest compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? - the Christmas 2005 surprise bestseller - this new collection includes recent answers never before published in book form, and also old favourites from the column's early days. Yet again, many seemingly simple questions turn out to have complex answers. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. New Scientist's 'Last Word' is regularly voted the magazine's most popular section as it celebrates all questions - the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This new selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

Does Anything Eat Wasps?

Does Anything Eat Wasps?
Author: New Scientist
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2006-04-05
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0743299175

How fat do you have to be to become bulletproof? Why do people have eyebrows? Why do pineapples have spines? How much does a head weigh? What affects the color of earwax? How quickly could I turn into a fossil? Have you ever thought up a question so completely off-the-wall, so seemingly ridiculous, that you couldn't even find the courage to ask it? Maybe at the sports bar you were transported by the beauty of your beer to wonder, "How long could I live on beer alone?" Or, cycling through the park, you mused, "Did nature invent any wheels?" Or looking up at the night sky, you had a moment of angst, "What would happen if the moon suddenly disappeared -- if it were vaporized or stolen by aliens?" Full of fun factlets, Does Anything Eat Wasps? is a runaway bestseller around the world. It celebrates the weird and wacky questions -- some trivial, some baffling, all unique -- and their multiple answers culled from "The Last Word," a long-running column in the internationally popular science magazine, New Scientist. Tackling the imponderables of everyday life, sparkling with humor, and bursting with delightful erudition, Does Anything Eat Wasps? is irresistibly entertaining and utterly engrossing. So, go on. Put away your lab coat and your pencil -- science is fun again.

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely
Author: New Scientist
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1529381258

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is the third compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006), Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful questions and answers such as: Why does garlic make your breath smell? How toothpaste makers get the stripes in toothpaste? Why do we get 'pins and needles'? Why are some people left-handed and other people right-handed? Can insects get fat? Do elephants sneeze? And do fish get thirsty? What causes cells to stick together in the human body rather than simply fall apart? And why are pears pear-shaped (and not apple-shaped)? This eagerly awaited selection of the best once again presents popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

My Penguin Year

My Penguin Year
Author: Lindsay McCrae
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0062971387

A "remarkable memoir" (Nature) of life with an emperor penguin colony, gorgeously illustrated with 32 pages of exclusive photography For 337 days, award-winning wildlife cameraman Lindsay McCrae intimately followed 11,000 emperor penguins amid the singular beauty of Antarctica. This is his masterful chronicle of one penguin colony’s astonishing journey of life, death, and rebirth—and of the extraordinary human experience of living amongst them in the planet’s harshest environment. A miracle occurs each winter in Antarctica. As temperatures plummet 60° below zero and the sea around the remote southern continent freezes, emperors—the largest of all penguins—begin marching up to 100 miles over solid ice to reach their breeding grounds. They are the only animals to breed in the depths of this, the worst winter on the planet; and in an unusual role reversal, the males incubate the eggs, fasting for over 100 days to ensure they introduce their chicks safely into their new frozen world. My Penguin Year recounts McCrae's remarkable adventure to the end of the Earth. He observed every aspect of a breeding emperor's life, facing the inevitable sacrifices that came with living his childhood dream, and grappling with the personal obstacles that, being over 15,000km away from the comforts of home, almost proved too much. Out of that experience, he has written an unprecedented portrait of Antarctica’s most extraordinary residents.

How Long is Now?

How Long is Now?
Author: New Scientist
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1857889541

Big or small, there's an answer to every question, and sometimes there are even a few! How long is "now"? The short answer is "somewhere between 2 and 3 seconds." The long answer involves an incredible journey through neuroscience, our subconscious and the time-bending power of meditation. Living in the present may never feel the same. Ready for some more? Okay. Why isn't Pluto a planet? Why are dogs' noses wet? Why do hens cluck more loudly after laying an egg? What happens when one black hole swallows another? Do our fingerprints change as we get older? How young can you die of old age? And what is at the very edge of the universe? Life is full of mind-bending questions, and, as books like What If? and Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? have shown, the route to find each answer can take us on the weirdest and most wonderful journeys. How Long is Now? is a fascinating new collection of questions you never thought to ask, along with answers that will change the way you see everything.

Why Are Orangutans Orange?

Why Are Orangutans Orange?
Author: Mick O'Hare
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2012-11-06
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1453271538

Fun science and nature trivia with full-color photos in a “deeply fascinating and occasionally rib-tickling book” (Booklist). From the editor at New Scientist who brought us such works as How to Fossilize Your Hamster, this is an illustrated compendium of facts that reveal the beauty, complexity, and mystery of the world around us. Drawing on the magazine’s popular “Last Word” column, Why Are Orangutans Orange? covers everything from bubbles to bugs, as well as why tigers have stripes and blue-footed boobies have, well, blue feet. With over two million copies sold, this series of question-and-answer compendiums is a delight for anyone who loves to learn!

Penguin Chick

Penguin Chick
Author: Betty Tatham
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2001-12-18
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0064452069

An emperor penguin lays an egg on the Antarctic ice. In the bitter cold, miles away from the only source of food, how can the chick survive?

How to Make a Tornado

How to Make a Tornado
Author: New Scientist
Publisher: John Murray
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1473651190

Science tells us grand things about the universe: how fast light travels, and why stones fall to earth. But scientific endeavour goes far beyond these obvious foundations. There are some fields we don't often hear about because they are so specialised, or turn out to be dead ends. Yet researchers have given hallucinogenic drugs to blind people (seriously), tried to weigh the soul as it departs the body and planned to blast a new Panama Canal with atomic weapons. Real scientific breakthroughs sometimes come out of the most surprising and unpromising work. How to Make a Tornado is about the margins of science - not the research down tried-and-tested routes, but some of its zanier and more brilliant by-ways. Investigating everything from what it's like to die, to exploding trousers and recycled urine, this book is a reminder that science is intensely creative and often very amusing - and when their minds run free, scientists can fire the imagination like nobody else.

The Ecology Book

The Ecology Book
Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1465488421

Learn about species, environments, ecosystems and biodiversity in The Ecology Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Ecology in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Ecology Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Ecology, with: - More than 90 of the greatest ideas in ecology - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Ecology Book is a captivating introduction to what’s happening on our planet with the environment and climate change, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you’ll discover more than 90 of the greatest ideas when it comes to understanding the living world and how it works, through exciting text and bold graphics. Your Ecological Questions, Simply Explained How do species interact with each other and their environment? How do ecosystems change? What is biodiversity and can we afford to damage it? This fresh new guide looks at our influence on the planet as it grows, and answers these profound questions. If you thought it was difficult to learn about this field of science, The Ecology Book presents the information in a clear layout. Learn the key theories, movements, and events in biology, geology, geography, and environmentalism from the ideas of classical thinkers in this comprehensive guide. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Ecology Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

How to Fossilize Your Hamster

How to Fossilize Your Hamster
Author: Mick O'Hare
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2008-01-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1429941626

Outrageously entertaining and educational experiments from the team behind the phenomenal international bestseller Does Anything Eat Wasps? How can you measure the speed of light with a bar of chocolate and a microwave oven? To keep a banana from decaying, are you better off rubbing it with lemon juice or refrigerating it? How can you figure out how much your head weighs? Mick O'Hare, who created the New Scientist's popular science sensations Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?, has the answers. In this fascinating and irresistible new book, O'Hare and the New Scientist team guide you through one hundred intriguing experiments that show essential scientific principles (and human curiosity) in action. Explaining everything from the unusual chemical reaction between Mentos and cola that provokes a geyser to the geological conditions necessary to preserve a family pet for eternity, How to Fossilize Your Hamster is fun, hands-on science that everyone will want to try at home.