Explainer
From Deja Vu to Why the Sky Is Blue, and Other Conundrums
1st Edition
Published on 1. October 2013
351 pages
978-1-4863-0051-8 (ISBN)
Description
Ever wondered how vaccines work, why whales strand themselves or if luck exists? The Explainer: From Deja Vu to Why the Sky Is Blue, and Other Conundrums is a collection of around 100 of the best articles published in 'The Explainer' and 'Monday's Medical Myths' sections of The Conversation. The book answers questions on everyone's mind about a diverse range of topics, abstract concepts, and popular and hard core science. Sections include: animals and agriculture, body, climate and energy, medical myths, mind and brain, research and technology, and more. Expert authors combine facts, analysis, new ideas and enthusiasm to make often challenging topics highly readable in just a few short pages. This book is for the curious, those with a thirst for answers, and those with a fascination of how phenomena, new technologies and current issues in our daily lives work.
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10/2013
CSIRO Publishing
€19.00
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Content
- Cover
- Foreword 1
- Foreword 2
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Animals and agriculture
- How are vaccines used in Australian agriculture?
- What do we know about why whales strand themselves?
- What is biodiversity and why does it matter?
- Why is Hendra virus so dangerous?
- Body
- Can you pay off your 'sleep debt'?
- Do we need to follow medication use-by dates?
- Overweight, obese, BMI - what does it all mean?
- What are antibiotics?
- What are migraines?
- What are trans fats?
- What is a gene?
- What is cancer?
- What is cerebral palsy?
- What is colour blindness?
- What is deep vein thrombosis?
- What is dengue fever?
- What is herpes?
- What is stuttering?
- Climate and energy
- Climate modes and drought
- Storing renewable energy
- What are biofuels?
- What is photovoltaic solar energy?
- What we know and don't know about climate change
- Ever wondered?
- Does luck exist?
- Why hypothesis and significance tests ask the wrong questions
- Why is the sky blue?
- Medical myths
- Drink eight glasses of water a day
- We only use 10 per cent of our brain
- Alcohol kills brain cells
- You can't mix antibiotics with alcohol
- A diet high in antioxidants slows the ageing process
- Take an aspirin a day after you turn 50
- Cutting carbs is the best way to lose weight
- Eating carrots will improve your eyesight
- Childhood vaccinations are dangerous
- Chocolate causes acne
- Chocolate is an aphrodisiac
- Cranberry juice prevents bladder infections
- Take a vitamin a day for better health
- Dairy products exacerbate asthma
- Deodorants cause breast cancer
- Detox diets cleanse your body
- Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
- Eat for two during pregnancy
- You need eight hours of continuous sleep each night
- We're not getting enough sun
- Fish oil is good for heart health
- Fruit juice is healthier than soft drink
- Hospitals get busier on full moons
- Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis
- Leave leftovers to cool before refrigerating
- Low-fat diets are better for weight loss
- Men also go through menopause
- The MMR vaccine causes autism
- MSG is a dangerous toxin
- Natural cancer therapies can't harm you
- No pain, no gain
- Organic food is more nutritious
- Osteoarthritis can be 'cured'
- Peanuts in pregnancy cause allergies
- The placebo effect only works on the gullible
- Don't worry, kids will grow out of their 'puppy fat'
- Reading from a screen harms your eyes
- Men think about sex every seven seconds
- SPF50+ sunscreen almost doubles the protection of SPF30+
- Stress can turn hair grey overnight
- Sugar makes kids hyperactive
- Wearing tight undies will make you infertile
- You can selectively train your left or right brain
- Vitamin C prevents colds
- Wait 30 minutes after eating before you swim
- Mind and brain
- The brain
- What are phobias?
- What is déjà vu and why does it happen?
- What is depression?
- What is dreaming?
- What is forgetting?
- What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
- Research and technology
- Nanotechnology and you
- Quadruple-helix DNA
- The 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - what are G-protein-coupled receptors?
- What is GPS?
- What is the Human Genome Project?
- Space, time and matter
- Black holes
- Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
- Gravity
- Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
- Quarks
- String theory
- The Doppler effect
- The fifth dimension
- The Higgs boson
- What is an isotope?
- What is Chaos Theory?
- What is wave-particle duality?
- Glossary
