{"product_id":"the-totally-useless-history-of-science-cranks-curiosities-crazy-experiments-and-wild-speculations","title":"The Totally Useless History of Science","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eForget Boyle’s law, polymer chains, cellular respiration and fields of force – here’s all the really interesting stuff you never learnt during science lessons at school. But this isn’t fantasy, this is hard fact:\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFact: The stethoscope owes its invention in 1816 to a young doctor who was too embarrassed to put his ear to a young woman’s chest\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFact: In 1954 a Soviet surgeon grafted a puppy’s head onto the shoulder of a German shepherd dog\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFact: Since falling off a ship in 1992, fleets of yellow rubber ducks have provided invaluable data on the currents of the world’s oceans\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTotally Useless History of Science\u003c\/em\u003e covers all the important (and some of the totally unimportant) branches of science:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul type=\"disc\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhysics: from experiments involving the slow removal of one’s stockings to the Dutchman who tested the Doppler effect by placing an entire orchestra on a railway wagon.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eZoology: from the spontaneous generation of mice from rotting wheat to the ‘discovery’ that swallows spend their winters at the bottom of lakes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBotany: from the rhododendron honey that makes men mad to the use of ginger as an equine suppository\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeteorology: from showers of frogs and fish to the man struck by lightning seven times\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAstronomy: from the Greek philosopher who believed the sun was a great disk of blazing metal to the American astronomer who saw irrigation canals on Mars\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ian Crofton","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":50043930870057,"sku":"660731B","price":11.75,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9435\/7545\/files\/the-totally-useless-history-of-science-275472.jpg?v=1754412337","url":"https:\/\/thebookstore.pro\/products\/the-totally-useless-history-of-science-cranks-curiosities-crazy-experiments-and-wild-speculations","provider":"The Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}