Dr. Joe's Brain Sparks 179 Inspiring and Enlightening Inquiries into the Science of Everyday Life

Prepare to be amazed once again. Did you know what when you shake a ketchup bottle you're practicing thixotropy? That the ancient Greeks made themselves look less ancient by inventing moisturizer? That the mysterious drug obecalp* is as effective as homeopathy and many herbal cures? From the bestselling author of An Apple a Day, Brain Fuel, and Science, Sense and Nonsensecomes a fresh batch of inquiries into the science of everyday life. Dr. Joe, as he is affectionately known to millions of readers, listeners, viewers, and students, presents his third book in the Doubleday Canada series he launched with Brain Fuel. Using a Q&A format, it explains the world through science, and science through our common experience. There are sections on diet and nutrition, new drugs, and the dubious claims made for alternative remedies and beauty potions. There is a profusion of inspiring, enlightening, sometime just downright bizarre information drawn from the laboratory, from history, from our medicine cabinets and the bottles under our sinks. Science is everywhere, and Dr. Joe is keeping track - and doing it in a marvelously warm, eminently readable style. Let the brain sparks fly! *Try reading this word backwards. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Dr. Joe's Brain Sparks explains the world through science, and science through common experience. There are sections on diet and nutrition, new drugs, and the dubious claims made for alternative remedies and beauty potions. There is a profusion of inspiring, enlightening, and sometimes just downright bizarre information drawn from the laboratory, from history, from our medicine cabinets and the bottles under our sinks. Dr. Joe shows us that science is everywhere-and he does it, as ever, in wonderfully engaging style. Dr. Joe schwarcz is director of-McGill University's Office for Science and Society, where he teaches courses on nutrition arid the applications of chemistry to everyday life. Among his many honours are the Royal Society of Canada's McNeil Award, and the American Chemical Society's Grady-Stack Award. He is the host of a weekly radio show on CFRB in Toronto and Montreal's CJAD, and writes a weekly column for the Montreal Gazette.