{"product_id":"9781848660731","title":"The Totally Useless History of Science: Cranks, Curiosities, Crazy Experiments and Wild Speculations","description":"\u003cbr\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:\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e \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 \u003cli\u003eFact: In 1954 a Soviet surgeon grafted a puppy’s head onto the shoulder of a German shepherd dog\u003c\/li\u003e \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\u003c\/ul\u003eTotally Useless History of Science covers all the important (and some of the totally unimportant) branches of science:\u003cul\u003e \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 \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 \u003cli\u003eBotany: from the rhododendron honey that makes men mad to the use of ginger as an equine suppository\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eMeteorology: from showers of frogs and fish to the man struck by lightning seven times\u003c\/li\u003e \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\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Arcturus Publishers, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47057747247344,"sku":"9781848660731","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781848660731_p0.jpg?v=1763750176","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781848660731","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}