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The Little Giant Book of Science Facts
Hundreds of fascinating, flabbergasting, and sometimes freaky facts are at your disposal in this fun-sized compendium. Uncover animal oddities, including the fact that certain species of frogs can survive being frozen solid and thawed. Find out how strange people really Did you know that the average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime—enough to fill two swimming pools? And there are botanical surprises, such as that bananas are actually herbs, plus science tidbits about the Earth, inventions, computers, and more.
- GenresNonfiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2017
Men often tell women to smile. It's about control, not about them actually caring about their well being. And I've heard the type of man who tells women to smile cite a fact from this book, though it's not where it originates: It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 muscles to frown. The idea is that smiling is easier than frowning so gosh darn it, smile! All the time! No matter how you feel!
Problem: The fact isn't true. Search on the net for four minutes and you'll find that the human face doesn't even have 43 muscles and that no one knows how many it takes to smile versus frown in any case.
So how can anyone trust anything in a book like this? It's not just this book, either. I was in my library's used book store today and saw a book of facts published by Mental Floss, the magazine. Just thumbing through it while standing there one of its facts caught my eye: Dragonflies live just 24 hours.
I used to see that in a list of animal "facts" my late mother's friends would email to each other. It's not true. The ones you see in the spring live for a few weeks, the larger species that emerge in summer live for well over a month. They were thinking of Mayflies.
I'm writing this just days after a chief spokesperson for America's president used the phrase "alternative facts" as though such facts were a legitimate thing. They're not and they never will be. Check things at all times. Always question authority.
Problem: The fact isn't true. Search on the net for four minutes and you'll find that the human face doesn't even have 43 muscles and that no one knows how many it takes to smile versus frown in any case.
So how can anyone trust anything in a book like this? It's not just this book, either. I was in my library's used book store today and saw a book of facts published by Mental Floss, the magazine. Just thumbing through it while standing there one of its facts caught my eye: Dragonflies live just 24 hours.
I used to see that in a list of animal "facts" my late mother's friends would email to each other. It's not true. The ones you see in the spring live for a few weeks, the larger species that emerge in summer live for well over a month. They were thinking of Mayflies.
I'm writing this just days after a chief spokesperson for America's president used the phrase "alternative facts" as though such facts were a legitimate thing. They're not and they never will be. Check things at all times. Always question authority.
July 10, 2012
This book was like my bible in 4th grade and I have kept it dearly all these years. If I could, I would rate it 10/5 stars.
December 26, 2014
Nice for trivia.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews