How to Dunk a Doughnut - book review

Okay, so the book isn't really about "how to dunk a donut". The subtitle of the book "The Science of Everyday Life" just doesn't have the same eye catching appeal as How to Dunk a Doughnut. The author Len Fisher, in addition to being a winner of the Ignobel Prize in Physics has written more than 80 scientific papers and book chapters as well as made more than 200 radio and television appearances discussing the science of everyday life. Many of us think of science as something which affects our life only when a new invention hits the market or a new way of killing our enemy is shown on TV. But Len would have us know that science matters - everyday.

The book has chapters on dunking (cookies actually, not doughnuts); boiling an egg, evaluating, and possibly improving, various tools in our garage; estimating a grocery bill; throwing a boomerang (now there's an everyday act for you); catching a ball; observing foams in your bath or your beer; examining how taste and smell works; and even on the physics of sex. His humor and language is definitely British which sometimes works and sometimes needs to be translated for us Americans.

I liked the anecdote about Viagra. It was apparently being developed to treat angina, heart pains. The dramatic effects it had on the rigidity of the penis was only discovered when someone wondered why all the male participants of the experiment had failed to return leftover pills once the trials had ended. He then goes on to explain that of the 10 most significant medical advances of the twentieth century, 7 arose from research completely unrelated to the eventual application. In other words, targeted research is fine but we often benefit even more from untargeted research.