Product Description

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is the third compilation of readers’ answers to the questions in the ‘Last Word’ column of New Scientist, the world’s best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? (2006), this latest collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers never before seen in book form. As usual, the simplest questions often have the most complex answers – while some that seem the knottiest have very simple explanations. New Scientist’s ‘Last Word’ is regularly voted the magazine’s most popular section as it celebrates all questions – the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This all-new and eagerly awaited selection of the best again presents popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #889 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'Sure to be another Christmas hit' Independent. 'A fascinating book' BBC Focus. 'It does have wonderful laughs' Sunday Tribune. 'It's interesting, it's accurate and it's science without the boring bits - If you're thinking of buying it as a present then it's something for the intelligent, thinking reader to keep' The Bookbag.

From the Back Cover
* Why does garlic make your breath smell? * How many germs are there on a coin? * What makes you left-handed or right-handed? * Do fish get thirsty? * Does it matter which lottery numbers you choose? New Scientist magazine’s supremely popular ‘Last Word’ column offers an endless array of fascinating questions and answers from its readers. Here is a brand-new collection of the very best of them, in another dazzling mixture of serious enquiry, brilliant insight and the hilariously unexpected. Two previous ‘Last Word’ collections – Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? – are No. 1 bestsellers, and both are firm favourites with a wide range of readers. This eagerly awaited third volume is as full of wit, wisdom and wackiness as ever – it will be irresistible for ‘Last Word’ fans and new readers alike.

About the Author
Over 50 years old, New Scientist is the bestselling and fastest growing science magazine in the world, with over 400,000 readers a week in the UK alone. Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is again compiled and edited by Mick OÂ’Hare, production editor at New Scientist and widely interviewed author of How to Fossilise Your Hamster.

Customer Reviews

great for those who love bizare facts!
great for those who love bizare facts or those who your not really sure what to get for a present! does anything eat wasps is the best in the new scientist series though, but if your getting this for a fact lover then they will probably have that already! a great stocking filler!
my favourite is how long would it take to fill the grand canyon with milk?
about 20,000 years! if you want to know why get the book!

Entertaining and informative
This book is made up from readers' answers to a broad range of questions posed in the New Scientist magazine. In many cases the questions are more intriguing than the answers (which can get fairly scientific) - one example being: if you were to eat your own body, what would be the LEAST nutritious part?! Because the answers are all written by different individuals, they vary in tone from being highly technical to very amusing. But for the most part the answer to the question "Do scientists have a sense of humour" would most definitely be yes.

It's a great book to flick through with no one answer taking more than a couple of minutes to read. I can think of several men who would consider this the perfect book to have sitting by the toilet. I bought this book for a bright eleven year old who thinks it's brilliant. Entertaining and informative.

And do Polar Bears get lonely? Apparently not. Other polar bears represent competition for food and are invading their territory. Mother bears tolerate their own offspring until they are fully grown, but then they are expected to find their own territory.

Great fun for all ages
This book is such fun - it's got silly facts and everyday facts - full of things you never thought you needed to know that suddenly seem indispensable!