United States
£ GBP
What happens if you fall into a black hole? Which properties give you the best chance of winning Monopoly? And why is it always so difficult to get ketchup to come out of a full bottle? Award winning science writer Robert Matthews provides answers to the most baffling, intriguing, and occasionally downright trivial questions submitted by members of the general public. From the mysterious fate of odd socks to the farthest reaches of the universe, this collection unravels the science behind the world around us. Entertaining, enlightening, and often inspired, this book is a must-read for all inquisitive minds.
Robert Matthews is Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, Birmingham, in the UK. He has published pioneering research in fields ranging from code-breaking to the probability of coincidences, and won an Ig Nobel Prize for his studies of Murphy's Law, including the reasons why toast so often lands butter-side down. He is also an award-winning journalist who writes about science for many publications, including Sunday Telegraph, Financial Times, Focus, and New Scientist. He lives in Oxford, UK.
A thrill-ride for curious minds. - John Rennie, editor-in-chief of Scientific American "Robert Matthews has done a heroic job in revealing the science behind a broad and entertaining range of questions that real people ask, from whether it is better to walk in the rain than run (no, just about) to whether there is a universal definition of left and right (yes). Ideal fodder for the curious mind." - Roger Highfield, author of Can Reindeer Fly? and The Science of Harry Potter
