Description

This book tackles 12 simple questions in 12 chapters. After answering the initial question (for example, are viruses alive, why does ice float, why is the sky blue and grass green, and why doesn't the Moon fall to Earth due to Earth's gravity?), each chapter dives into an array of topics that explore new weird and wonderful linkages based on those 12 answers. For example, after answering the question "are viruses alive?" I explore the likely origin of COVID-19. After answering the question "why does ice float?" I discuss what life would be like on Earth if ice didn't float and I discuss why Earth has been almost entirely covered in snow and ice several times in the geological past. After examining the question "why is grass green?", I show the remarkable similarities between the structure of chlorophyll in leaves, haemoglobin in human blood and the nodules on roots of legumes (peas and beans, for example). After answering the question "why doesn't the Moon fall to Earth due to Earth's gravity?", I show what would happen if the Moon did fall to Earth, and discuss the link between tides and jellyfish. This chapter also shows what happened when large meteorites hit Earth in the past, including the extinction of dinosaurs. After answering the question "what makes Earth's magnetic field?" I show how the N and S magnetic poles are forever wandering around and discuss how the N and S magnetic poles can, and do, flip so that the N magnetic pole becomes the S magnetic pole. I also discuss the importance of Earth's magnetic field to all of life on Earth - especially to Humans, and how human evolution may have been affected by changes in the strength of Earth's magnetic field. In the last two chapters of the book I discuss the difference between weather and climate, the relationship between changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and surface temperature, and specifically address the question: Is the Science of Climate Change Settled? Spoiler alert - it certainly is not.