The Last Word

New Scientist: Last Word #1

by New Scientist

SINOPSE Plano Nacional de Leitura Livro recomendado para apoio a projetos relacionados com Temas Científicos no 3º ciclo de escolaridade e para Leitura Autónoma no Ensino Secundário. A revista New Scientist, na sua mais famosa secção, «The Last Word», convida os leitores a fazerem perguntas e a darem respostas sobre questões de ciência. Neste volume, durante longo tempo nas listas dos livros mais vendidos, reúnem-se as mais interessantes dessas questões, abarcando um variadíssimo leque de assuntos, muitos deles aparentemente triviais, desde plantas e animais até ao corpo humano, aparelhagens, mecanismos, invenções, peripécias e fenómenos de «todos os dias» Divertido e cheio de imaginação, um livro que alimenta a curiosidade, desafia a inteligência, promove a imaginação. «Dizia Pasteur que saber admirar-se, saber espantar-se, era a qualidade que mais sobressaía nos cientistas. Que a humildade no perguntar e, não menor, no responder constitua exemplo para todos, em particular para os estudantes e professores portugueses. É assim que poderemos revitalizar o nosso ensino e transformar a nossa atmosfera cultural. Neste sentido, também este livro é exemplar.»

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Popular Science

300 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little compendium of all sorts of intriguing questions that you often encounter in every day life and wonder why such things happen or occur!

It was quite an entertaining book and with something in it for everyone. You’re bound to find a question you find interesting or a topic (such as the intrigues of the human body or household items) that you will find enlightening. There’s definitely plenty of nuggets of wisdom and information you can impart upon your friends and family or down at the pub!

This is a fairly old edition though that I read so of course, whilst much of the core science will be the same, there is bound to be new research to shed light on some of the questions but it was still a great read and quite informative too!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book pretty much describes itself. The last word was a column in the New Scientist which has grown so much in popularity that as it can be seen it has become a phenomenon in its own right. The book basically is a series of light hearted questions which are then answered by a series of experts and opinionated non-experts. The questions though light are not necessarily straight forward or simple - such as why is the sky blue and why don't penguin' feet freeze. My only criticism is the nature in which some questions are answered - sometimes it seems that its too easy to poke fun rather than accept that this is a question on someones mind - they did after all spent the time and effort to write in and ask. that said if you have a general inquisitiveness about the world this is a great place to start. One warning though you cannot read both books in one go their approach to questions can lead to a bit of an overload - though you can read through them in a day

[Darjeeling · Rating 4 out of 5]

QI in book form. Not as good as "What If" by Randall Munroe, which is much more enthusiastic in providing references and citations, but still an entertaining read if you like random unrelated science facts. Which I do.