Dr. Joe Schwarcz, chemist and Director of the Office for Science and Society for McGill University, has certainly come up
with an ear-catching title for his newest book. If it weren’t for the cost of ink and the limitations of space, however, this book might just as well be titled Dr. Joe and What You Didn’t Know, but Now That You Do Know, You’ll Go To Work Monday Morning and Drive Your Colleagues Crazy with Your Knowledge of Scientific, Social, and Historical Trivia . It is a book with an incredibly high “Did you know that. . .?” quotient.
Did you know that memory can be transferred through the molecules of worms?
Did you know that many of the first workers hired to paint luminous watch dials died from licking the radioactive material off their brushes?
Did you know that maggots have a useful place in modern day medicine?
Did you know that Beethoven may have died of lead poisoning?
And so on. I could continue the list indefinitely—or at least for 177 of these teasers, because that’s how many
questions he answers. At least this sample makes obvious the wide range of topics. As a chemist, Dr. Schwarcz he gives his answers a
chemistry connection wherever feasible, but he also makes forays into the realms of biology, geology, physics, and the history of science and medicine. For example, he explains why physicians of the 1800’s used to carry leather-wrapped walking sticks. This, in the age before anesthesia, was for the patients to bite on when the pain became excruciating.
Not all the entries are for the faint of heart—or stomach. Several, including the one that dealt with the medical use of maggots, must not be read while eating. One in particular, again having to do with maggots, made me stop reading in the middle of a paragraph and snap the book shut. I never finished that entry. I never will. Which is not to say that Dr. Joe goes purposely for the gross-out factor. He merely views certain functions of the natural world with a clinical disinterest that I cannot match. But these instances are few.
The questions, incidentally, were originally posed by Dr. Schwarcz to the audience of his weekly radio show. To stimulate linear thinking (and to make the answers more difficult to find through a simple Google search), he designed many of his questions to ask for the connection between two apparently unrelated entities: swimming pools and French vineyards, Frankenstein and frogs’ legs, the space shuttle and railroad tracks. The answers that he provides in this book are often as entertaining as they are informative, with Dr. Schwarcz summing up many of the segments with his obviously dry humour, sometimes with a deft twist of the imagination, sometimes with a with a little quip or pun.
He also includes many practical applications. Learn why a wooden cutting board may be more sanitary than a plastic one, and the best ways to disinfect it. Discover what happens when false fingernails meet an open flame. Understand how sunscreens work and how to choose the right one. And find out under what conditions you can and cannot refreeze food.
This book is completely captivating for anyone who is curious about how the world works. Each question and answer combination can be read in a matter of minutes, but, like good potato chips, you can’t stop at just one. Dr. Schwarcz, who writes a column and presents lectures in addition to his radio show, has received accolades and awards for his work in interpreting science to the public. If this, his fourth book in this field, is any measure of his work, the honours have been well deserved.