REVIEW: The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog: And Other Serious Discoveries of Silly Science by Carly Anne York

A brilliant new voice in science writing—”witty, whip-smart, truly one of our best” (Mary Roach)—shows why playfulness and curiosity are the key to science

Why would anyone research how elephants pee? Or study worms who tie themselves into a communal knot? Or quantify the squishability of a cockroach? It all sounds pointless, silly, or even disgusting.

Maybe it is. But in The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog, Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and simply curiosity-driv...