A Feast of Science: Intriguing Morsels from the Science of Everyday Life

In this enticingly absorbing book, Dr. Schwarcz presents about a hundred bite-sized essays explaining in anecdotal style how science works. He attempts to separate the gibberish touted by advertisers and celebrities profiting from their product sales and explain the basics of how things actually function. Among the diverse topics, there is an article extolling the genius of Tesla, another on the Polio vaccine, and yet another on the oral form that inspired the song “A Spoonful of Sugar” in Mary Poppins. In the essay on the power of the mind, it’s shown how the body can respond to a belief. When, from force of circumstance, on the battlefield a painfully wounded soldier has his pain relieved after being informed that the saline shot actually injected was morphine. Delve into stories about phosphides, arsenic, ether, butyric acid, caproic acid (also known as goat stench), the use of iodine to test apple ripeness, and so many other chemicals that are part of daily life. The very appealing stories describe the fallibility of many, the discoveries of others, and the chance observations and accidents that led to new and useful discoveries. This author has the canny knack to explain the language of science to a public resistant to technical jargon, and he makes the magic of chemistry accessible to the lay reader.