Does Anything Eat Wasps?: And 101 Other Questions (New Scientist)

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-07-01 rating:
Entertaining and informative
A great book with lots of interesting snippets of information. I took it with me while travelling and it was an ideal book to fill in odd moments at airports. Highly recommended.

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review by: date: 2009-06-17 rating:
Great
My only fault with it is, for people (like myself) whose memory of science at school is quickly slipping away, some of the answers can be quite complex and hard to get your head round it. As such it falls somewhere between a book for the lay person and people who have an understanding of such things.

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review by: Pete the music fan date: 2009-06-03 rating:
Fun look at science, volume one
In 1994, the New Scientist started a column, The last word, devoted to everyday science questions asked by readers, with answers also provided by readers. Originally expected to survive for between one and five years, the column survived way beyond that and as far as I know, it is still going strong. Two books compiled from these columns didn't do much business but the third (this one) was a huge success. Its success prompted a subsequent volume, Why don't penguins feet freeze?, that selects questions and answers from those two unsuccessful volumes and adds questions of more recent origin. A further volume, Do polar bears get lonely?, has also proved hugely successful. br / br /This book consists of eight chapters covering our bodies, plants and animals, domestic science, our universe, our planet, weird weather, troublesome transport and, for questions that don't fit easily into any of those categories, best of the rest. br / br /The question that gives the book its title was presumably prompted by the irritation that wasps cause in the summer months. Apparently, the only answer that the questioner could come up with was very stupid birds, so he asked New Scientist. A variety of answers was supplied and it appears that certain species of birds, frogs, fishes and insects will all eat wasps, given the chance, while badgers sometimes dig up their nests and feed on the larva. This is typical of the book, which usually provides several responses to each question, though occasionally only one, if it is good enough. Some responses are obviously meant to be serious, as they all were regarding the unformatted wasps, but funny responses are given to some questions along with more serious responses. br / br /Another question that particularly grabbed my attention was about snow. The questioner asked why it is sometimes impossible to make a snowball because the snow won't stick together. Two answers are supplied but neither mentions the famous British Rail answer - it's the wrong type of snow. Still, if you read the answers, you'll understand that there really are different types of snow. br / br /The variety of the questions asked and the answers provided is incredible, although I confess that I wouldn't have actually considered asking most of these questions. While this book provides very informative answers, I suspect that you'll have most fun with it if you share it with family and friends.

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review by: date: 2009-05-20 rating:
Bizarre...
I love books like this. Crammed full of questions and answers about all manner of things, from the logical to the bizarre. I'm one of those inquisitive people who often ponders weird questions, not mentioning these wonderings to other people for fear they'll think I'm a crazy woman. This book reminds me that there are other crazy people out there, thinking random thoughts about everyday things. Interesting and comical, this book was a fun read. br /


review by: mrfreedom date: 2009-01-20 rating:
Slightly disappointing
This is by no means a bad book but it just didn't quite do it for me. That's because even though there are lots of interesting questions and answers there are many that aren't that interesting. br /An example of the latter would be the sort of question that asks something like 'why is rain wet?' And the answer will go 'well, rain is wet because x plus y equals z and blah blah blah', blinding you with science. Now I know this is a science book. But the type of questions that work best here are ones like 'why do we have eyebrows?', and you get some fascinating information about how evolution is responsible. Basically, the best ones are the ones you will remember to tell your mates down the pub, and if they're ones full of complex equations and whatnot you're not going to remember them. br /

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