The Last Word: New Scientist (Popular Science)

Rating:
Summary: Answers to life's little (scientific) mysteries
Review: New Scientist is one of the best science magazines available, and "The Last Word" is its most popular section.

As it says in the introduction, there are big mysteries and little mysteries. This book is devoted to the little mysteries, as celebrated in New Scientist magazine's "The Last Word" column, where readers send in their questions and other readers answer. So here you can find out things from why the sky is blue to why ice cubes have little bubbles toward the middle to why fingertips wrinkle when they've been in water too long. I was particularly interested to learn that hot water really does freeze faster than cold water (and why), something I had regarded as an urban legend. Interesting reading and probably a great bathroom book.

Rating:
Summary: Answers to life's little (scientific) mysteries
Review: New Scientist is one of the best science magazines available, and "The Last Word" is its most popular section.

As it says in the introduction, there are big mysteries and little mysteries. This book is devoted to the little mysteries, as celebrated in New Scientist magazine's "The Last Word" column, where readers send in their questions and other readers answer. So here you can find out things from why the sky is blue to why ice cubes have little bubbles toward the middle to why fingertips wrinkle when they've been in water too long. I was particularly interested to learn that hot water really does freeze faster than cold water (and why), something I had regarded as an urban legend. Interesting reading and probably a great bathroom book.