reading

First published in Great Britain in 2005 by

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This eBook edition first published in 2009

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN: 978-1-84765-046-7

Contents

Introduction

1 Our bodies

2 Plants and animals

3 Domestic science

4 Our universe

5 Our planet

6 Weird weather

7 Troublesome transport

8 Best of the rest

Introduction

When, in 1994, New Scientist began publishing The Last Word, the magazine’s weekly column of everyday science questions and answers provided by readers, one of the journal’s editors asked how long we expected the column to run. Estimates ranged from twelve months to five years. ‘If,’ suggested one, ‘we reach ten years, I’d be amazed. That would be more than five hundred weeks of questions – there simply aren’t that many out there.’

Eleven years later you are reading Does Anything Eat Wasps?, a witty and sometimes esoteric compilation of questions and answers from a column that shows no sign of running out of steam. In the last five years alone, readers have told us how fat you have to be to become bulletproof, why dark alcoholic drinks cause heavier hangovers than light ones, how to judge the amount of rain in a cloud and why eating green potatoes can be downright dangerous. And The Last Word has even spawned a research project and scientific paper in the journal Physica A. So taken were a group of researchers in Spain and the USA by our question asking why Tia Maria and cream interact so dramatically that they set about finding the answer. You can read what they discovered.

So why has the column thrived against all expectations? Well, as colleagues often tell me, I have the easiest job on the magazine. The Last Word is driven entirely by the enthusiasm of New Scientist’s readers. Without their enduring input there would be no Last Word, and you would not be reading this book. Every week our email system is inundated with readers’ new questions and, almost as rapidly, those questions are answered by their peers. This book is a result of their efforts.

And, if you enjoy reading it, you can join them by buying the weekly magazine or logging on to http://www.newscientist.com/lastword.ns, where you can pose your own question or answer another. But remember, The Last Word is devoted to the small questions in life. We can’t solve the mystery behind the meaning of human existence, but we can tell you why your tea changes colour when you add lemon juice. We don’t know whether there is life in another galaxy, but we do know how to make bubbles in your chocolate bar. We are devoted to the trivial.

Back in 1994 that same sceptical editor promised to throw a party if The Last Word was still in existence in 2004. As well as waiting vainly for the column to show signs of flagging, I am still waiting for the party to which I should invite all those who have made The Last Word the success it is.

Mick O’Hare

The editor would like to extend special thanks to Jeremy Webb, Lucy Middleton, Alun Anderson and the subediting and production teams of New Scientist magazine for helping to make this book so much better than it would have been otherwise.