Why Do Onions Make Me Cry?

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.

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.