Scientific American's Ask the Experts
, by Scientific American
- ISBN: 9780060523367 | 0060523360
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 1/1/2003
With this book of science trivia, readers join an esteemed team of experts for a rollicking ride from the far reaches of the universe to the natural world right in their own backyard.
| Celestial Bodies: Astronomy | |
| It Came From Outer Space: asteroids, meteors, and comets | |
| How crowded is the asteroid belt? | p. 1 |
| What causes a meteor shower? | p. 4 |
| Is it possible that a meteorite could strike a commercial airliner and cause it to explode? | p. 5 |
| Why are impact craters always round? | p. 6 |
| Heavenly Bodies: planets and moons | |
| What defines a true planet, and why might Pluto not qualify? | p. 8 |
| Why do the moon and the sun look so much larger near the horizon? | p. 11 |
| What is a blue moon? | p. 13 |
| Why are planets round? | p. 14 |
| How do scientists measure the weight of a planet? | p. 15 |
| How fast is the earth moving? | p. 17 |
| Why and how do planets rotate? | p. 19 |
| Star Light, Star Bright: stars | |
| What exactly is the North Star? | p. 21 |
| How long do stars usually live? | p. 23 |
| Why do stars twinkle? | p. 25 |
| Far, Far Away ...: the universe | |
| How do we know our location within the Milky Way galaxy? | p. 26 |
| Why is the night sky dark? | p. 28 |
| Does the fact that the universe is continually expanding mean that it lacks a physical edge? | p. 31 |
| It's Alive! Biology | |
| The Grass Is Always Greener: plants | |
| What causes the leaves on trees to change color in the fall? | p. 35 |
| How does the Venus flytrap digest flies? | p. 37 |
| How do trees carry water from the soil around their roots to the leaves at the top? | p. 39 |
| Creepy Crawlers: insects | |
| How is bug blood different from our own? | p. 41 |
| What kind of illnesses do insects get? | p. 43 |
| How do flies and other insects walk up walls? | p. 44 |
| Why is spider silk so strong? | p. 45 |
| If a used needle can transmit HIV, why can't a mosquito? | p. 46 |
| Under the Sea: ocean life | |
| How do squid and octopuses change color? | p. 47 |
| Why do some fish normally live in freshwater and others in saltwater? How can some fish adapt to both? | p. 50 |
| How can sea mammals drink saltwater? | p. 53 |
| How do deep-diving sea creatures withstand huge pressure changes? | p. 56 |
| How do whales and dolphins sleep without drowning? | p. 57 |
| That's a Horse of a Different Color: animal kingdom | |
| Do hippopotamuses actually have pink sweat? | p. 61 |
| Why do cats purr? | p. 62 |
| Why do dogs get blue, not red, eyes in flash photos? | p. 64 |
| How do frogs survive winter? Why don't they freeze to death? | p. 66 |
| Do unbred animals lack the individual distinctiveness of humans? | p. 69 |
| Talkin' About Evolution: evolution | |
| Is there any evolutionary advantage to gigantism? | p. 71 |
| What is the point in preserving endangered species that have no practical use to humans? | p. 74 |
| What do we know about the evolution of sleep? | p. 76 |
| When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth: dinosaurs | |
| What are the odds of a dead dinosaur becoming fossilized? | p. 78 |
| What kind of evidence could be found in the fossil record (or anywhere else) that would prove whether some dinosaurs were warm-blooded? | p. 80 |
| How close are we to being able to clone a dinosaur? | p. 84 |
| Did any dinosaurs have poisonous saliva, as in Jurassic Park? | p. 85 |
| If T. rex fell, how did it get up, given its tiny arms and low center of gravity? | p. 86 |
| Being Human | |
| It's All in the Genes: human evolution | |
| Is the human race still evolving? Isn't culture a more powerful force? | p. 89 |
| Can the human race be devolving? | p. 92 |
| Why are we getting taller as a species? | p. 94 |
| Why do men have nipples? | p. 96 |
| Oh, Behave!: human behavior | |
| How did the smile become a friendly gesture in humans? | p. 99 |
| Why are more people right-handed? Do other primates show a similar tendency to favor one hand over the other? | p. 100 |
| How long can humans stay awake? | p. 103 |
| Do humans have some kind of homing instinct like certain birds do? | p. 105 |
| Why do we yawn when we are tired? And why does it seem to be contagious? | p. 107 |
| You Haven't Aged a Bit: growing older | |
| Why does hair turn gray? | p. 109 |
| Do people lose their senses of smell and taste as they age? | p. 111 |
| Anatomy 101: the human body | |
| What is the function of the human appendix? | p. 113 |
| What makes the sound when we crack our knuckles? | p. 115 |
| Why does your stomach growl when you are hungry? | p. 118 |
| How can you live without one of your kidneys? | p. 120 |
| Why do fingers wrinkle in the bath? | p. 122 |
| If the cells of our skin are replaced regularly, why do scars and tattoos persist indefinitely? | p. 124 |
| Why does fat deposit on the hips and things of women and around the stomachs of men? | p. 125 |
| The Dr. Is In: health and medicine | |
| Why do hangovers occur? | p. 128 |
| Why does reading in a moving car cause motion sickness? | p. 130 |
| Why do we get the flu more often in the winter than in other seasons? | p. 132 |
| What happens when you get a sunburn? | p. 134 |
| There are many kinds of cancer, so why is there no heart cancer? | p. 136 |
| Is there any proof that Alzheimer's disease is related to exposure to aluminum--for instance, by using aluminum frying pans? | p. 138 |
| How long can the average person survive without water? | p. 139 |
| As a Matter of Fact: Chemistry | |
| Elementary, My Dear Watson ...: the elements | |
| Why doesn't stainless steel rust? | p. 141 |
| If nothing sticks to Teflon, how does it stick to pans? | p. 143 |
| What determines whether a substance is transparent? | p. 144 |
| If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen! everyday chemistry | |
| Why do my eyes tear when I peel an onion? | p. 145 |
| Why do spicy (or "hot") foods cause the same physical reactions as heat? | p. 148 |
| Why does bruised fruit turn brown? | p. 150 |
| How is caffeine removed to produce decaffeinated coffee? | p. 151 |
| What is the difference between artificial and natural flavors? | p. 153 |
| How can an artificial sweetener contain no calories? | p. 155 |
| Do vitamins in pills differ from those in food? | p. 157 |
| Where There's Smoke, There's a Fire: more chemistry | |
| How does a flame behave in zero gravity? | p. 159 |
| How does fingerprint powder work? | p. 161 |
| There's No Place Like Home: Earth Science | |
| Everybody Talks About It ...: weather | |
| Why do clouds float when they have so much water in them? | p. 163 |
| What causes thunder? | p. 165 |
| Why are snowflakes symmetrical? | p. 167 |
| Why are some rainbows bigger than others? | p. 168 |
| What is the meaning of the phrase, "It is too cold to snow"? Doesn't it have to be cold for it to snow? | p. 170 |
| Why do hurricanes hit the East Coast of the United States but never the West Coast? | p. 171 |
| Up Above: the atmosphere | |
| If chlorofluorocarbons are heavier than air, how do they reach the ozone layer? | p. 173 |
| What determines the shape of a mushroom cloud after a nuclear explosion? | p. 174 |
| The Upper Crust: earth's surface and below | |
| How do volcanoes affect world climate? | p. 175 |
| Where do geysers get their water from? | p. 179 |
| How do scientists measure the temperature of the earth's core? | p. 182 |
| What causes the regular, wavelike shapes that form in the sand on beaches? | p. 184 |
| What is quicksand? | p. 186 |
| Let's Get Wet: oceans | |
| How did the oceans form? | p. 188 |
| Why does the ocean appear blue? Is it because it reflects the sky? | p. 190 |
| Count on Me: Mathematics and Computers | |
| Much Ado About Nothing: zero | |
| What is the origin of zero? | p. 191 |
| Give 'Em an Inch measurement | |
| On average, how many degrees apart is any one person in the world from another? | p. 193 |
| Where does the measurement of the "meter" come from? | p. 195 |
| How does a laser measure the speed of a car? | p. 197 |
| Does Not Compute computers | |
| Why do computers crash? | p. 199 |
| How do Internet search engines work? | p. 201 |
| How do rewritable CDs work? | p. 203 |
| When did the term "computer virus" arise? | p. 205 |
| Let's Get Physical: Physics | |
| Let There Be Light: light | |
| How do surfaces, such as pavement, become heated from the sun? | p. 207 |
| What is the physical process by which a mirror reflects light rays? | p. 208 |
| How does sunscreen protect the skin? | p. 210 |
| Why are sunsets orange? | p. 212 |
| I'm Very Particular particles | |
| If we cannot see electrons and protons, or smaller particles such as quarks, how can we be sure they exist? | p. 213 |
| Is glass really a liquid? | p. 215 |
| Now Hear This sound | |
| How can the extremity of a whip travel faster than the speed of sound to produce the characteristic "crack"? | p. 216 |
| What causes the noise emitted from high-voltage power lines? | p. 217 |
| What are "booming sands" and what causes the sounds they make? | p. 219 |
| What happens when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier? | p. 221 |
| In Theory: theoretical physics | |
| Is it theoretically possible to travel through time? | p. 223 |
| Is dark matter theory or fact? | p. 227 |
| Would you fall all the way through a theoretical hole in the earth? | p. 230 |
| What is antimatter? | p. 232 |
| Does the speed of light ever change? | p. 234 |
| You Won't Believe Your Eyes the physics of seeing | |
| Why do beautiful bands of color appear in the tiny oil slicks that form on puddles? | p. 236 |
| Why is it that when you look at the spinning propeller of a plane or fan, at a certain speed, the blades seem to move backward? | p. 237 |
| Why do jets leave a white trail in the sky? | p. 239 |
| Shake It Up everyday physics | |
| Does hot water freeze faster than cold water? | p. 241 |
| How does a microwave oven cook foods? | p. 243 |
| Why does shaking a can of coffee cause the larger grains to move to the surface? | p. 244 |
| Why does a shaken soda fizz more than an unshaken one? | p. 246 |
| Bottom of the 9th, Bases Loaded: the physics of baseball | |
| What makes a knuckleball appear to flutter? | p. 248 |
| Why does a ball go farther when hit with an aluminum bat? | p. 250 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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