Why Do Onions Make Me Cry?: Answers to Everyday Science Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask

by Jay Ingram

Overview

Discovery Channel host and acclaimed writer Jay Ingram helps you find the answers to questions you've never really settled, like “What is déjà vu?” “Why do we blink?”, “Why are yawns contagious?” and the perennial “Do we really use only 10% of our brains?”

Note that this book is a combined and abridged edition of The Science of Why and The Science of Why2.

Have you ever wondered if people really do weird things during the full moon? How about whether fingernails grow faster than toenails? And do we really dream in color? Jay Ingram is here to put these and many other long-lived scientific uncertainties to rest in this whimsically illustrated guide to the science of everyday life.

Combining the wit of What If? by Randall Munroe and the accessible science smarts of ASAP Science, this new collection features answers to common queries with part sections that address the supernatural, the human body, the animal kingdom, the natural world, and more. It includes fun facts, myth busters and line drawings, all with the end goal of delighting and surprising your inner science geek.

Whether these questions have been on your mind constantly, or occasionally resurface like the myth of Loch Ness (Is it real?), whether they’re silly (Why does my pee smell like asparagus?) or serious (Why does time speed up as I age?) or just plain frustrating (Why do mosquitoes love me?), Ingram will settle them once and for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982110840
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Jay Ingram has hosted two national science programs in Canada, Quirks & Quarks on CBC radio and Daily Planet on Discovery Channel Canada. He is the author of nineteen books, which have been translated into fifteen languages, including the bestselling five-volume The Science of Why series. In 2015, he won the Walter C. Alvarez Award from the American Medical Writers’ Association for excellence in communicating health care developments and concepts to the public, and from 2005 to 2015 he chaired the Science Communications Program at the Banff Centre. Jay has six honorary degrees, was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and is a Member of the Order of Canada. He is cofounder of the arts and engineering street festival called Beakerhead in Calgary. He lives in Calgary, Alberta. Connect with him on Twitter @JayIngram.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Human Body

Why do onions make me cry? 3

Can humans echolocate? 5

What do our pupils say about us? 11

Why does asparagus make my pee smell funny? 15

Do fingernails grow faster than toenails? If so, why? 19

Why do I get hiccups and how can I make them stop? 25

Why do my knuckles make that cracking noise? 31

What is a hangover and how is one cured? 35

Could humans ever hibernate? 39

Do we all have Neanderthal in us? 43

History Mystery: Did Newton really get hit on the head by an apple, inspiring his thoughts of gravity? 51

Part 2 The Human Brain

Why are yawns contagious? 57

Does subliminal advertising work? 63

Why do people faint when they see blood? 67

Why do people choke under pressure? 73

Why do I sometimes have difficulty recalling words on the tip of my tongue? 77

Why can't I remember anything that happened before I was two years old? 83

Why does time seem to speed up as we age? 87

Can we really tell when someone is staring at us? 91

What are near-death experiences? 95

What is déjà vu? 99

History Mystery: Did Archimedes really set Roman ships on fire with the sun? 107

Part 3 The Animal Kingdom

How do electric eels shock their prey? 115

Where do cats come from? 119

Where do dogs come from? 123

What attracts mosquitoes to me? (And what can I do about it?) 129

Why do lizards shed their tails? 133

Why do some creatures throw their feces? 137

Why do geese fly in V formation? 143

How do octopuses camouflage themselves? 147

How can a mongoose survive a cobras bite? 151

Can an elephant jump? 155

History Mystery: Did Galileo drop balls from the Tower of Pisa? 159

Part 4 The Natural World

What's inside a black hole? 167

Why is the night sky dark? 171

Why is the sky blue? 175

Why does the moon look larger at the horizon? 179

What would happen if the moon disappeared? 183

How do stones skip? 187

Why does campfire smoke seem to follow you around? 191

How are champagne bubbles different from beer bubbles? 195

Why do leaves change color in the fall? 201

What is the sound barrier and can we break it? 205

History Mystery: Is it true that right now we are breathing the same air that Julius Caesar breathed? 209

Part 5 Weird Science & Machines

Could we bring back the dinosaurs? 215

Are we alone in the universe or are aliens out there? 219

Could we ever build a space elevator? 225

What's dangerous about the Bermuda Triangle? 231

Does Bigfoot exist? 235

How does one pick the most private urinal in a public bathroom? 241

How much do people pee in pools? 247

What is the Turing test? 251

Will machines ever have feelings? 255

Are we living in a computer simulation? 259

History Mystery: Why were Tyrannosaurus rex's arms so short? 263

Acknowledgments 269