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Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?

Why Don't Penguins' Feet FreezeBy New Scientist
Review by George (Engineering)

Why don’t penguins feet freeze? Well it turns out they can control the blood flow to their feet and they also have a system of blood vessels that reduces heat loss from their bodies. These both help them to keep their feet a few degrees above freezing. This also stops them sticking to the ice.

I read this book during secondary school and it lead to me going on long tangents to my mates about why lightning forks and what it is in helium that makes your voice go squeaky. Filled with questions about a lot of things in nature that we just take as they are, this is a very lighthearted read and will leave you wondering why you never thought about something before. This is perfect because this book provides answers to questions you didn’t know you wanted the answer to. There are questions on all sorts of topics too, from the universe to food and drink, so there’s something for everybody. You can then read around to find the topics that interest you.

All the questions are from a write-in column in the New Scientist magazine. They all have multiple answers, are often fairly simplified, and all take the question from a different and new perspective. There’s also a few joke answers scattered about help to break up some of the necessarily longer answers from complex questions. The book is perfect to pick up and put down whenever you’ve got a minute or if you just want to learn something new.

So, if you fancy being able to crack out some interesting, but probably useless, facts to your friends and family, this is the book for you.

Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?: And 114 Other Questions by New Scientist
ISBN-10: 1861978766
ISBN-13: 978-1861978769

Try checking the availability of this book at your school or local library or explore second hand bookshops and websites. You may also wish to purchase from either Amazon or Blackwell’s.

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