DID YOU KNOW? Stinky ear wax has been hanging around in the ear canal for nearly a month before it is pickable! Humans share a third of their DNA with lettuce. Cockroaches fart every fifteen minutes. Giraffes never kneel. The average person spends six months of their life on the loo. Amaze your friends & fascinate your family with this book packed with jaw-dropping eyebrow-raising facts. ...

An irreverent sleuth tackles the riddle of existence that has puzzled man since the dawn of time. Why is there a world rather than nothing at all? remains the most curious & most enduring of all metaphysical mysteries. Moving away from the narrower paths of Christopher Hitchens Roger Penrose & Stephen Hawking the celebrated essayist Jim Holt now enters this fascinating debate with his broad lively & deeply informed narrative that traces all our efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. With sly humour & a highly original personal approach Holt takes on the role of cosmological detective. Suggesting that we might have been too narrow in limiting our suspects to God & the Big Bang he tracks down among others an eccentric Oxford philosopher a Nobel Laureate physicist a French Buddhist monk & John Updike just before he died to pursue this cosmic puzzle from every angle. As he pieces together a solution
- while offering useful insights into time consciousness & eternity
- he sheds fascinating new light on the meaning of existence.

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Chris Smith left his Worcestershire home but instead of cycling the routine twelve miles to work he kept on pedalling. 13 months later he arrived in Beijing. This is the account of an epic quest to rediscover a misplaced sense of identity in which exhilaration & exhaustion trade positions against a backdrop of prodigious physical endeavour. ...

What time is it at the North Pole? Should you pickle your conkers? Why does my aubergine look like Elvis? Plus 111 other questions answered. Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?" is the latest 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?"
- the Christmas 2005 surprise bestseller
- this new collection

Includes:: recent answers never before published in book form & also old favourites from the column's early days. Yet again many seemingly simple questions turn out to have complex answers. & some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. " New Scientist"'s " Last Word" is regularly voted the magazine's most popular section as it celebrates all questions
- the trivial idiosyncratic baffling & strange. This new selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining & enlightening."




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For all the discussion in the media about creationism & Intelligent Design virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question
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The modern world is dominated by ideas that are threatening to kill us: that life is one long battle from conception to grave; that all creatures including human beings are driven by their selfish DNA; that the universe is just stuff for us to use at will. These ideas are seen to emerge from science & hard-nosed philosophy & become self-fulfilling. They have led us to create a world in perpetual strife unjust & in many ways precarious. This remarkable book by an experienced author & thinker argues there's another way of looking at the world that is just as rooted in modern science & yet says precisely the opposite: that life is in fact cooperative; that all creatures including human beings are basically nice; & that there's more to the 'stuff' of the world than meets the eye. This book is both a powerful call to action to rethink our assumptions & a message of hope for those who believe we're doomed to self-destruction. ...

You see there was a time when Giraffe didn't have a long neck. She had short legs short horns & a very short stumpy neck. She was also a very fussy eater.. . So what do you think happened when she tried to get some honey from deep inside the tree? Brilliantly colourful Tingatinga" artwork tells the story of Giraffe's transformation from a stumpy necked beast with short legs into her elegant Tinga Tinga persona. Featuring the colourful cast of " Tinga Tinga" animals & glorious " Tingatinga"-inspired artwork." ...

Human beings are the only species to have evolved the trait of emotional crying. We weep at tragedies in our lives & in those of others
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While its tone is playful & frivolous this book poses tough questions over the nature of religion & belief. Religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind
- why are we here what is the point of being alive how ought we to behave? Russell snatches that comfort away leaving us instead with other more troublesome alternatives: responsibility autonomy self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now the place to live is here & the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy.
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What does it mean to be a Catholic in todays world? What distinguishes the modern Catholic from anyone else? At a time when the Vatican provokes hostility by its opposition to contraception abortion & the use of condoms in fighting AIDS how many Catholics share its views? & if they dont how can they in good conscience stay in the Church? These are among the many questions that writer & broadcaster Peter Stanford has addressed to some of Britains best-known Catholics. There is a whole spectrum of response in this entertaining & enlightening collection. Fascinating...a surprisingly uplifting book. Sunday Telegraph A hard-hitting book which criticises as much as it praises...it should be read by anyone interested in the phenomenon of organised religion. Spectator ...