The magazine "New Scientist" is one I've never read myself, but some of my friends are
regular readers, and occasionally, one of them sends me the link to an article they deem particularly interesting for me (they are always right).
A column in the magazine is called "The Last Word" and it is apparently immensely popular, featuring readers' answers to readers' questions about puzzling everyday questions such as "What affects the different shadings of earwax?" or "Why should one never eat the green areas on a potato?", or even "Does being beheaded hurt?".
This book is a fascinating collection of over 100 such questions - and their answers. I enjoyed it a lot, and am sure that some of what I have learned from it will come in helpful... at the next pub quiz or, indeed, in everyday life.
It comes with a useful index, and the blurb on the back is right when it reads "sparkling with intelligence, knowledge and scientific curiosity".
So, if anyone ever wants to know why and how fabric conditioners reduce static electricity in clothes, why bruises go through a range of colours before the fade, or how the bubbles in aero chocolate are made to stay there, simply ask me!
PS. The answer to the title question is: Yes, of course - quite a few animals, mainly birds (but also a number of other wasps) eat wasps (something I actually knew before having read it in this book).
Oh, I think this is most interesting indeed! I wonder if my father in law would like this magazine? I will ask him!
ReplyDeleteYou might not think anything eats wasps if you have ever had to chase them from your hummingbird feeder! :-)
You'd certainly like it, Kay - both the book and the magazine, I imagine.
DeleteI hate it so when I sit somewhere outdoors at a café and wasps start surrounding me as soon as my cake is brought to the table...
It's good to know that other things eat wasps because they are hurtful and hateful creatures. I appreciate books like this one; I just wish that all that read in them would stay fixed in my brain. Apparently your blogging friends have got to know you quite well.
ReplyDeleteThey do, Norma; my blog does indeed say quite a lot about me so that those who read it regularly can get to know me almost as well as if we were meeting in real life.
DeleteLike you, I wish I'd be able to remember all those facts after reading.
I used to read the New Scientist all the time when I worked as a civil servant and got my husband a yearly subscription once as a gift- there is all sorts of amazing information and articles in it and as you rightly said, the answer to all those questions we need to know the answer to!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure also, that being beheaded does hurt quite a lot- if only instantaneously and I'd love to know the official answer!
There are three pages in the book, containing the answers of 5 readers to that question. To sum it up, the answer is, yes - even if only for a few seconds. Death occurs due to the separation of the brain from the spinal cord, after transsection of the surrounding tissues. Concsiousness is usually lost within 2-3 seconds, but there have been credible reports about conscious reactions from severed heads for 15 to 35 seconds. I'd rather not try it myself, to be honest.
DeleteIt really is a splendid series of books. Interestingly the first few were simply labelled 'The Last Word' but when they gave them sassy titles they really took off.
ReplyDeleteOh, there are more in the same series? I didn't know!
DeleteMy weekly paper, the "ZEIT", has a column called "Stimmt's?" (meaning "True?"). The questions are from readers, but the answers are from the column's author. I wonder whether these have ever been put together in a book.
Quite a few Meike. The latest one "Will We Ever Speak Dolphin" was published in 2012.
DeleteThis sounds fascinating, not something to read through from start to finish but to pick up and read just a bit. Then return again and again.
ReplyDeleteThat is what I did with it, Kristi - read it through vom start to finish, but I parallel-read two works of fiction during that time. And I am sure I'll refer to the book again.
DeletePS Not enough things eat wasps!
ReplyDeleteWell, I am not sure what would be the consequences if there were no (or much less than now) wasps about... As long as they are not around me when I am trying to enjoy a piece of cake outdoors!
DeleteI've seen this book around a lot, but never looked into it - perhaps because normally I wouldn't be interested in the question of whether anything eats wasps. This is because common sense tells me something probably does, otherwise we'd have a plague of wasps! :) But it seems to be doing well, if its ubiquity is anything to go by, so putting a question like that on the cover obviously hasn't harmed its sales!
ReplyDeleteSome of the questions are rather intriguing, so who knows why they chose one for the title that has such an obvious answer.
DeleteAnyway, it is the kind of book I enjoy - learning something but at the same time being entertained.