Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions

Virginia Gillham is university librarian and archivist at Wilfrid
Laurier University library. She is also a judge of national and
international figure skating competitions.

The popular science journal New Scientist includes a column called
“Last Word,” in which readers ask everyday questions with scientific
answers, and other readers respond. Three compilations of tidbits from
this column have been published previously to this one. The first two
met only modest success. The third, for reasons inexplicable even to the
editor, was wildly successful on both sides of the Atlantic. In
reviewing this phenomenon, the editor concluded that much of the content
of the first two volumes had gone unrecognized and unappreciated. Buoyed
by the success of the third volume, he has now created a fourth volume
based on all three books, together with new information published since
publication of volume three.

Why does hair turn grey? Why do tooth fillings hurt when they touch
silver foil? Why don’t sleeping birds fall from their perches? Why are
eggs egg-shaped? Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze? Organized by broad
category, these are among the questions brought together in Why Don’t
Penguins’ Feet Freeze? This is a fun book of science-based trivia that
would make a good gift or travel companion. The creative among us might
use it as the basis for parlour games.