Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries

by Sherry Seethaler

"Dr. Seethaler has written an excellent book for any interested student of science. She answers great questions about the world around us in this fascinating book. As a high school science teacher, I encounter many of these from my own students. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has pondered questions starting with 'how, ' 'what, ' or 'why.'" -Ernest James Lo, Science Teacher, Woodside High School, Woodside, CA Prepare to Be Fascinated! Why does the flu change every year? - What makes glue sticky? - What causes out-of-body experiences? - Are all brands of gas the same? - Will adult stem cells work as well as embryonic stem cells? - Is one "horsepower" really equal to the power of one horse? - Why can't you sneeze with your eyes open? - How much does a cremated body weigh? These are just a few of the fascinating science and health questions real people have asked top science writer and San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Sherry Seethaler. Curious Folks Ask brings together 162 of her best answers-all crystal-clear, accurate, quick, and a pleasure to read. Seethaler is one of this generation's best science explainers, and it shows: Every answer is accurate, fun to read, and distilled to a single page or less! Want to know how canned air works...or nuclear bombs? What causes goose bumps, earwax, dandruff, headaches? Whether it's healthy to crack your knuckles, drink decaf, eat chocolate? What it costs to run all those LED lights around your house? It's all here-and a whole lot more!
Your body's oddities: knees to knuckles, itches to sneezes
Surprising facts about how your body grows and works
Our ingenious inventions
The past, present, and future of our relentless human inventiveness
Pesky pathogens: viruses, bacteria, and prions
How they keep outsmarting us, and why it's so hard to stay healthy
Common chemical concoctions
The science behind the everyday products that have transformed our lives
Uniquely human: how we got here, how we're unique
New lessons from genetics, archaeology, and evolutionary biology

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Ebooks, Education, Health, Technology

222 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2009

Reviews

[Rachel C.]

I downloaded this title as an e-book freebie. Reading it exclusively on my Blackberry while waiting for things, I finished it in about a month. On the one hand, I'm glad I started making use of the time; on the other hand, I'm appalled by how much of my life is wasted on interstices.

The Q&A format was perfect for reading on the bb's tiny screen. The contents were in convenient bite-sized pieces, and there was no plot continuity to worry about.

My favorite trivia tidbit: Synesthesia is a disorder where input from one sense is misinterpreted by the brain as input from another. Lexical-gustatory synesthesia is when hearing, seeing, saying or thinking about a word leads to a specific, detailed taste experience. For one guy, the word "part" tasted like chicken noodle soup.

[Amy]

I've had this on my Kindle for a long time; reading a bit here and there for about a year. I finally finished it last night. Honestly, it wasn't that interesting. I can't recall a single fact I learned from it. The part I was reading last night was about how gray hair happens.

[Christina]

A Q&A-style collection of 162 science columns originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The information didn’t really engage me or stick with me. I’m not much of a science reader, and that was no doubt at play, but I try to stretch my interests with my reading. Despite being intended for general readers, her answers often became too technical to understand. Even the author (or her editor) seems aware of it in this line in response to a question about gray hair: “Hair color depends on the presence or absence of the pigment melanin, which is produced in organelles called melanosomes within cells called melanocytes by the process of (don’t worry, tedium does not cause gray hair) melanogenesis.” It’s all very well to give a technical answer, but if the book isn’t written for science majors, there needs to be an effort to translate the scientific language to make it more accessible. This may be difficult in a newspaper where there’s limited space, but in a book, she could have revised and added more. I’ll also acknowledge that it’s a very special skill set to be highly knowledgeable in a subject but be able to explain it to a novice, let alone also make it engaging. Basically, the author isn’t really a gifted teacher, and it seems like there’s a mismatch between the content and the target audience at times.

She does effectively debunk a fair number of myths. I just wasn’t all that interested in many of them. To be fair, this is probably more of a flip-through-and-just-read-the-answers-that-interest-you book, and I read it cover to cover in small increments, because that’s how I usually read. And I rate on based on my personal experience of a book; another reader may enjoy this more.

Despite being published by a major publisher (Pearson), the interior layout is bizarre. Sometimes, the next question will immediately follow on the same page, other times, it will start on the next page as if a new chapter, leaving a lot of white space throughout—sometimes more than half a page is blank for no reason. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to this. I suspect that they didn’t use an interior designer to lay out the text for printing, and just converted a Word document or eBook which had page breaks that looked good in that format, but messed up the spacing in the printed book.

[Duckpondwithoutducks]

This book was in a question and answer format - somebody wrote in a science question, and the author anwers it. I think that my favourite question was - how does a frost-free freezer work? - because I have many memories of taking everything out of our freezer in the basement and chipping out big chunks of ice!

[Bob Cantrell]

The Answers abound

This was a real interesting book just for the questions asked. The answers were interesting also. There is a lot of information to be had by the reader. As to this being an easy read it is not the terminology used is somewhat daunting to a person with not a great knowledge of science. That being said it was still very interesting to read and find out about some of the things that go on in our bodies. If you like science then this a book for you.

[Mike]

This one has been sitting on my currently reading shelf for quite a while, and I decided I would finally take care of that. I may have finished it, I may not have. Either way, I don't remember much about it and it apparently didn't have much of an impact on my, admittedly lacking, memory.

[Alberto Tebaldi]

curious book taking many curiosities off my ignorance.

[Amancay]

I enjoyed reading this as tidbits, a great book to pick up whenever (eventually it became daily) to possibly learn something new… or more thoroughly!

[Breia]

I read this book on my Kindle when I had a few bits of time here and there. Each question is presented followed by a brief answer. A lot of the answers had associated websites provided if you wanted to read more information. I really enjoyed reading about things I never thought of before and those that didn't interest me, I just skipped. Fun to read for those small windows of time. I also picked up another Curious Folks Ask book for the same purpose.

[Sarah]

Liked the little stories, but I thought the ebook format wasn't great for the book. This book seems like the type you want in front of you so you can flip around and pick up interesting tidbits at random.

[Sarah Wright]

Very interesting.

Answers to a broad spectrum of questions are answered in this book (like what purpose to fingernails serve?).

I look forward to reading the next book and getting answers to more obscure questions.

[Dee Renee Chesnut]

This book was free when I downloaded it to my Nook. This is the second book I read by this author.

This is the type of general science I enjoy reading. Seethaler explains what I need to known in a concise, easy-to-remember format.

I recommend it for all readers.

[Jim Razinha]

Uncle Cecil meets Mr. Wizard to produce a somewhat smart bathroom reader. Any curious person would be familiar with at least some of these answers. The scientifically curious would know more. Good for teens or refresher knowledge.

[Vipul]

I found the book extremely boring.Like another reviewer mentioned, you either know the facts mentioned in the book or just don't care about them.There are too many good books out there to be wasting your time on this.

[Amy]

This was a free download that I read on a cross-country flight. Quick read, question/answer format, enjoyable. Some questions I skipped because either I didn't care or didn't understand what the author was saying.

[Saeideh Bakhshi]

It was a boring book. I usually enjoy the format of Q & A in books, as it enables me to jump to the questions that I'm interested in and ponder about answers, however this book had some boring questions that I didn't really care about.

[Kennedy]

Got this free for my Kindle. It is made up of science questions asked and explained. These come from a newspaper column. It was a very quick read and I learned some new stuff.

[Lindsay]

Nice bite-sized answers to some common questions. I did know a lot of them, but some were new and the book held my interest.

[Eric Brosch]

This book reminds me of one of my favorite series from years ago, "Why Things Are" by Joel Aachenback. I would highly recommend this for anyone who liked those books or others like them.

[Holly]

Sometimes I just want something light and trivial to read. This served the purpose.

[Stacie]

Interesting read with random questions and answers. It is easy to read and gives a lot of information.

[Andy]

Lots of interesting information, but the reader-submitted questions could have used some smoothing over for tone. Some of them came off as weirdly antagonistic, and it was jarring.

[Julie]

This was another Kindle freebie so worth what I paid for it. Actually parts were quite interesting, like a series of essays on obscure subjects.

[SimplyAtomic]

This book was disapointing. I thought I would learn new things only to have it be filled with things I already knew.

[Jessie Verino]

Didn't hold my interest like I thought it would.

[Igor]

Nice summer reading just to relax. Nothing too complex but engaging enough to read in the beach and still have some fun.

[Kristin]

This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I found most parts rather boring. The only parts I liked or found the least bit interesting were the parts about the body. I'm glad it's over with.

[SheLove2Read]

Well researched but boring presentation.

[Matt Kelland]

I learned a few things, but the tone didn't really engage me - neither light enough nor serious enough. However, it would be a good thing to give to a curious teenager.

[Gizzard]

Interesting answers to science questions. One thing I really liked is that the answers were science and no old wives tales or political agenda. Something hard to find in today's published books.