Now in paperback: the perfect quirky Christmas present for readers of New Scientist and anyone who enjoys QI. The Things that Nobody Knows is a fascinating and unputdownable exploration of the limits of human knowledge of our planet, its history and culture, and the universe beyond.
William Hartston is a Cambridge-educated mathematician and industrial psychologist. Between 1962 and 1987 he played chess competitively, becoming an international master and winning the English chess championship in 1973 and 1975. He runs competitions in creative thinking for the Independent newspaper and the Mind Sports Olympiad. He also writes the off-beat Beachcomber column for the Daily Express and has written a number of books on chess, mathematics, humour and trivia.
Each mystery is delightfully penned in bite-sized chunks that often
includes humorous repertoire... highly enjoyable... Captivating and
inspiring
*New Scientist*
Properly researched, and the elegance of its pop-cosmology or
pop-biology mini-narratives rivals that of many specialists. It is
slyly witty, and pleasingly optimistic.
*Guardian*
Discovering the many undiscovered things that one thought had been
discovered already is one of the joys of this book... You might
have thought that wallowing in ignorance is a tedious and fruitless
occupation. As Hartston proves entertainingly, how wrong you would
be.
*Daily Express*
A rigorous and playful exploration of human limits in scientific
knowledge about the planet, its history and culture, and the
universe beyond
*Publishers Weekly*
A delightful collection for trivia buffs and browsers.
*Booklist*
Should you buy for your library a book with hundreds of questions to which no one knows the answer? If so, you should consider this clever and wry compendium, written by the ever-curious mathematician, writer, and psychologist Hartston. He's already done several similar, well-researched collections of seemingly "useless information." Yet these are the mysteries that could keep readers up at night-puzzling over information they didn't know that they didn't know. Confused? Well, it's that celebration of ignorance that makes this book both so much fun and such a conversation starter. While some topics and questions are quite obscure, there is plenty here to please any trivia enthusiast, scientific wonderer, or just the innocently ignorant (or, as it were, perpetually curious). Covering from aardvarks (do you share their DNA?) to zymology (much ado about yeast), the book takes a scientific look at a plethora of stuff you may never need to know, but once you scan the scintillating questions, you'll want to know more. In the midst of all our knowledge and education, how did we manage to overlook some of these questions-What was the origin of laughter? Who destroyed the nose of the Sphinx? Why are so many female albatrosses lesbian? Topics from the curious (sex, sports, religion) to the mundane (plankton, coffee, hair) are here-and Hartston provides humorous tidbits of historical information about each-piquing our interest but, alas, revealing that the real answer is.there is no answer. -Verdict This book goes beyond pop culture interest to engage those truly interested in scientific taxonomies; it's one of those rare books patrons won't want to put down and will be talking about for hours around the water cooler. Significant YA appeal as well.-Sharon Verbeten, Brown Cty. Lib., Green Bay, WI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
