Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? - Mick O'hare

I was looking for a little light reading recently to help me pass half an hour or so, as I skimmed my bookshelf I passed my usual favourites from the Dragonlance series of fantasy novels, passed all my mythological books and even my trashy romance novels and eventually settled on "Why don't penguins feet freeze" it seemed the perfect book to pass the time, not requiring me to dedicate myself to a whole novel or become too involved in plots or with characters. The book is a collection of questions brought together by the people at The New Scientist, a science based magazine and website, submitted by the general public and answered by a range of different ...  Read the complete review

'Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?' is a follow-up to the best-selling New Scientist publication 'Does Anything Eat Wasps?' I have to confess I haven't read the previous publication so can't give any personal feedback on how the two books compare but, from what I understand, both publications follow the same format which is revealing questions about the world around us and answers, both of which can be very bizarre indeed! All of the content of the book is based on a 'Last Word' column published in New Scientist magazine. I'm not a particularly scientifically- minded person so I'm not familiar with either the magazine or the column. It is perhaps a little ...  Read the complete review

What time is it at the North Pole? How did Santa manage to deliver all those presents in a single night? Why doesn't superglue stick to the inside of the tube? How can ants survive being nuked in a microwave?!? Do fish fart? All these and many other essential questions are answered in this superb little book, which has been compiled from the 'Last Word' column in the New Scientist magazine. Following on from the hugely successful best seller from 2005, 'Does anything eat wasps?’, the editor at New Scientist have gone on to publish this in order to further enlighten the reading public. And to get rid of those annoying little questions that you ask yourself, or ...  Read the complete review

Why don't penguins feet freeze? And 114 other questions - Mick O'hare This book was lent to me by my brother in law and when he suggested I read it, I was quite amused by the title so I borrowed it and sat down with a cup of tea to have a flick through. It is a compendium of random questions published by NewScientist in their "Last Word" column. It has the best, most interesting and the just plain weird from the column since the publication of their first book of "Does Anything Eat Wasps?". A reader writes in with a question of curiosity and the question was published in the magazine and then someone who knew the ...  Read the complete review