Table of Contents
Physical Matter and Forces
Is Light a Wave or a Particle? 10
What Makes a Boomerang Come Back? 12
Is the Mpemba Effect Real? 14
What Is the Hottest Temperature Possible? 15
Is Cold Fusion Possible? 16
Do Atoms Last Forever? 18
Can We Travel Through Time? 19
Will We Ever Be Able to Harness Nuclear Fusion? 20
Does Spontaneous Human Combustion Ever Happen-and How? 22
Space
What Are Fermi Bubbles? 26
Why Do Pulsars Pulse? 29
Does Alien Life Exist? 30
Why Don't Moons Have Moons? 31
What Is the Moon Illusion? 33
What's at the Bottom of a Black Hole? 34
What Does Space Smell Like? 36
How Long Would It Take to Walk a Light-Year? 38
What Causes Jupiter's Red Storm? 39
Are There Habitable Planets Beyond Our Solar System? 40
What Is Dark Energy? 42
How Will the Universe End? 44
What Is the Shape of the Universe? 46
Can We Deflect Asteroids? 48
Why Is the Milky Way a Spiral? 49
Will We Find Other Universes? 51
Could We Live on Mars? 52
What Is Dark Matter Made Of? 55
What Causes Gamma Ray Bursts? 56
Is a Space Elevator Possible? 59
How Does Gravity Work? 60
How Do Stars Explode? 62
What Causes the Aurora Borealis? 65
Is a Holodeck Possible? 66
How Did Saturn Get Its Rings? 67
Could a Supernova Wipe Out Life on Earth? 68
Human Body
Why Do We Blush? 72
What Is the Evolutionary Purpose of Tickling? 73
Why Do We Yawn? 74
Why Are Peanut Allergies on the Rise? 75
What Is a Memory? 76
Why Do We Dream? 78
Why Do We Laugh? 81
Do Cells Make Noise? 82
How Does the Brain Work? 84
What Is Emotion? 86
Is it True That You Use Only 10 Percent of Your Brain? 87
What Causes Déjà Vu? 88
Is the Y Chromosome Doomed? 90
Do Men and Women Have Different Brains? 91
Why Do We Sleep? 92
Why Do We Hiccup? 94
Why Aren't (Most) Humans Furry? 95
What Is the Science Behind Love? 96
Why Does Sunlight Make Some People Sneeze? 98
What Is Consciousness? 99
Can the Food You Eat Affect Your Descendants' Genes? 100
Are Telomeres the Key to Immortality? 101
Why Do We Have an Appendix? 103
Why Do We Have Fingerprints? 104
What Happens When You Die? 105
Is There an Alternative to DNA? 106
Why Do We Age? 108
When Will We Evolve Out of Our Useless Appendages? 109
How Much of the Human Body Is Replaceable? 110
Why Do Amputees Sense a "Phantom Limb"? 111
Can You Upload Your Brain to a Computer? 112
What Is Intelligence? 115
Earth
What Causes Volcanic Lightning? 118
Just How Old Is Dirt? 119
How Do Plate Tectonics Work? 120
How Big Would a Meteorite Have to Be to Wipe Out All Human Life? 122
Are We Really Drinking Dinosaur Pee? 123
How Do Fire Tornadoes Form? 124
When Is the Next Ice Age Due? 127
Are Earthquake Lights Real or Illusory? 128
What Is Ball Lightning? 128
Why Can't We Predict Earthquakes? 130
Where Did Earth's Water Come From? 131
Why Do Earth's Magnetic Poles Flip? 132
How Do Icicles Form Under Water? 133
Other Life-Forms
How Did Life Arise on Earth? 136
How Do Animals Sense Magnetic Fields? 137
How Do Animals Migrate? 138
Why Do Cats Purr? 139
Why Do Ducks Have Orange Feet? 140
Will Disease Drive Us All to Extinction? 141
What Do Whales Sing About? 142
Can We Clone Extinct Animals? 144
Could Cockroaches Survive a Nuclear Holocaust? 145
What Caused the Extinction of the Megafauna? 146
Why Are Bees Disappearing? 148
Why Do Geese Fly in a V Formation? 151
Human Triumphs and Troubles
What Was the Purpose of Stonehenge? 154
How Were the Easter Island Statues Built? 156
What Happened to the Neanderthals? 159
Is the Doomsday Argument for Real? 160
Why Can't the Voynich Manuscript Be Deciphered? 162
Is the Antikythera Mechanism the World's First Analog Computer? 164
What Caused the Decline of the Mayan Civilization? 165
How Were the Pyramids Built? 166
Glossary 168
Further Information 172
Index 173
