Rating: 
Summary: The Ubiquitous Holy Grail
Review: As a scientist and technical professional I couldn't put this book down. I have kept up with the the Annals of Improbable Research for many years and this truly reflects some of the best efforts of scientists the world over. In this volume we have works by legitimate Nobel prize winners, and lesser known works such as "Gummy Worm on a Sidewalk" by Kate and Jesse Eppers, ages 12 and 10, respectively. (In their conclusion they noted that: "We came to a conclusion that three out of five people will accidentally step on a gummy worm thrown on a sidewalk." Brilliant.)Highlights for me include: "The Laser Cheese Raclette", "The Effects of Peanut Butter on the Earth's Rotation," and, of course, "Internet Barbie and the Time Caplet." There are too many to go into, but almost all are delightful. I guess the only minor critique would be of the couple of pages of limericks, which I find a bit trying, particularly when the subject matter is "Mastodon, Mother, and Babe." Overall a wonderful, humorous look at scientists and science through a very different lens than most are used to.
Rating:
Summary: Very Funny, Enjoyable Humor
Review: As a scientist, I really enjoyed reading about the many funny quirks of scientific experimentation. Perhaps without these eccentricities, there would be no innovation! Great book!! If you enjoy "behind-the-bench" humor, I would like to suggest yet another book filled with hilarious situations and lots of candid, satirical wit on the life of scientists and their managers in high-tech R&D industry, from the point-of-view of the technical staff. This new, insightful American satire is entitled, "Management by Vice" by C.B. Don and is highly recommended as an entertaining, adjunct-read to the incredible "Annals of Improbable Research".
Rating:
Summary: Very Funny, Enjoyable Humor
Review: As a scientist, I really enjoyed reading about the many funny quirks of scientific experimentation. Perhaps without these eccentricities, there would be no innovation! Great book!! If you enjoy "behind-the-bench" humor, I would like to suggest yet another book filled with hilarious situations and lots of candid, satirical wit on the life of scientists and their managers in high-tech R&D industry, from the point-of-view of the technical staff. This new, insightful American satire is entitled, "Management by Vice" by C.B. Don and is highly recommended as an entertaining, adjunct-read to the incredible "Annals of Improbable Research".
Rating:
Summary: a great account of how smart people should spend thier time
Review: everyone should read this book a journey into the way intelligent people let off steam
Rating:
Summary: a great account of how smart people should spend thier time
Review: everyone should read this book a journey into the way intelligent people let off steam
Rating: 
Summary: NO SCIENCE, NO HUMOR
Review: I thought I was buying a book about funny things that have happened in the name of science, but that was not the case with this book. It's just a collection of not-so-funny articles that have appeared in the magazine "Annals of Improbable Research". They are not funny, and, you won't learn anything new about the scientific world. So, if you want to have a laugh while reading true stories about scientists, do not buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: NO SCIENCE, NO HUMOR
Review: I thought I was buying a book about funny things that have happened in the name of science, but that was not the case with this book. It's just a collection of not-so-funny articles that have appeared in the magazine "Annals of Improbable Research". They are not funny, and, you won't learn anything new about the scientific world. So, if you want to have a laugh while reading true stories about scientists, do not buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The funniest book I have ever read.
Review: Journalistic disclaimer: I am the 'TFD' on page 67, under 'Sleep Research Update'. If you have any sense of humour whatsoever, this book is for you. Having just returned from Cambridge (our fair city), where I led the Historians for Feynman and Tanna Tuva as Queen of Gravitation at this years' Ig Nobels, I can promise you no end of Cosmic Giggles. Possibly the only book in history with blurbs from the Car Talk guys, a Nobel Prize winner, and the most glorious Martin Gardiner. Parents of small children: listen up! You cannot afford to miss the classic 'Taxonomy of Barney', much less 'The Aerodynamics of Potato(e) Chips'. Too funny for words.
Rating:
Summary: Scientists are humans too. And quite good pranksters
Review: The Annals of Improbable Research is an institution by itself. A journal where Nobel Prize Winners amongst others write on the lighter side of science. Funny essays, stupid experiments, and completely non-sense conclusions, all of them scientifically backed up and explained. This Book collect some of the finest pearls that have appeared in the magazine and lets you wanting more. This book is the ultimate proof that your average Nobel Prize Winner can be a funny guy, and be able to laugh at himself and his work. Gives you a different (and funny) vision of science and scientists, by some of the best amongst them. A Definitive must buy if you are, even only remotly, linked to science, investigation, or technology. Your laughing source for when your experiment is going wrong at 3 a.m.
Rating: 
Summary: A Summary of Why I Published the Book
Review: The book was published for two reasons; the first was to elucidate, in an abstruse colloquiality, the inherent dynamism of scientific exposition in a post-anti-intellectual epoch while simultaneously pre-empting myriad polarities arising from the tentativation of unscholarly ignorance predicated upon, yet not essentially inimical to, the clarity of confluence. The second reason for publishing was to extract from the inexplicable a discourse on deliniation between fact as fiction and fiction as didacticism, albeit well-intended, and to then distil that discourse till potency of purpose became integral to procedural rectitude without the attendant self-proclamation of justified revelation.
|
