Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex

Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life

Joe Schwarcz

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781778522765
• Topic: Sciences physiques
• Subtopic: Chimie

In this new collection of bite-size pop science essays, bestselling author, chemistry professor, and radio broadcaster Dr. Joe Schwarcz shows that you can find science virtually anywhere you look. And the closer you look, the more fascinating it becomes. In this volume, we look through our magnifying glass at maraschino cherries, frizzy hair, duct tape, pickle juice, yellow school buses, aphrodisiacs, dental implants, and bull testes. If those don't tickle your fancy, how about aconite murders, shot towers, book smells, Swarovski crystals, French wines, bees, or head transplants? You can also learn about the scientific escapades of James Bond, California's confusing Proposition 65, the problems with oxygen on Mars, Valentine's Meat Juice, the benefits of pasteurization, the pros and cons of red light therapy, the controversy swirling around perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), why English cucumbers are wrapped in plastic, and how probiotics may have seeded Hitler's downfall.

Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex answers all your burning questions about the science of everyday life, like:

• why "superfood" is a marketing term, not a scientific one;
• why plastic wrap is sometimes the environmental choice;
• why supplements to reduce inflammation may just reduce your bank account;
• how maraschino cherries went from a luxury good to a cheap sundae topper;
• what's behind "old book smell";
• how margarine became a hot item for bootleggers;
• why duct tape is useful, but not on ducts; and
• how onstage accidents led to fireproof fabrics.

Table of contents

• Praise for Dr. Joe Schwarcz
• Also by Dr. Joe Schwarcz
• Introduction
• Breathe and Burn
• Bees and Bananas
• It’s on Fire!
• Nylon Pros and Cons
• Döbereiner’s Lighter and Berger’s Lamp
• The Dreyfus Brothers’ Discovery
• Smuggling Margarine
• That’s the Way the Rubber Ball Bounces
• Antibiotic Concerns
• Superfoods and Superhype
• Biobased and Biobunk
• Pickled Athletes
• Fascinating Fiberglass
• “Soothing, quieting, and delightful beyond measure”
• From “Swill Milk” to Pasteurization
• Frying with Water
• A Legendary Neon Sign
• The Third Man
• Rutherford’s Transformations
• Science in the Movies
• The Big Nickel
• Tin Pan Alley
• Valentine’s Meat Juice
• The Shot Tower
• Aconite Murder
• The Pitfalls of Proposition 65
• Red Light Therapy
• The Leidenfrost Effect
• An Experiment on a Bird
• Causation and Correlation
• Cucumbers and Plastics
• Uncle Fester
• Inflammation Information
• Wine and Health
• Problems with Palm Oil
• Issues with the People’s Chemist
• Bats, Vampires, and Longevity
• Hitler and Probiotics
• Molecules and Mirrors
• Clarence Birdseye and TV Dinners
• Diamonds!
• Head Transplants
• Organocatalysis
• The Bark That Cures
• Scho-Ka-Kola
• Expanding on Spandex
• Swarovski Crystals
• Catalytic Converters and Crime
• Fill ’er Up — With Hydrogen
• The Battle against Frizzy Hair
• The Curse of Misinformation
• Space Tourism
• The Father of Modern Medicine
• James Bond and the Puffer Fish
• Gutta-Percha, Walking Sticks, and Hickory Golfers
• John Dee and 007
• Maraschino Cherries
• Keep That Temperature Low
• The Yellow School Bus
• No, It Doesn’t Switch My Stem Cells On
• The Truth Is Out There
• Dental Implants
• It Stinks!
• Those “Forever” Chemicals
• Silkworm Poo
• Oxygen on Mars
• Bull Testes
• But It’s Natural!
• Graphene!
• Duct Tape
• Porcelain and Alchemy
• Lead — It Really Is Toxic
• Oh, That Old Book Smell!
• Roots of French Wine
• Let’s Play Chess
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright