Does Anything Eat Wasps?

A collection of the best questions that have appeared in "New Scientist" including: why can't we eat green potatoes? Why do airliners suddenly plummet? Does a compass work in space? Why do all the local dogs howl at emergency sirens? How can a tree grow out of a chimney stack? And why do bruises go through a range of colours?

How long can I live on beer alone? Why do people have eyebrows? Has nature invented any wheels? Plus 99 other questions answered.

Every year, readers send in thousands of questions to New Scientist, the world’s best-selling science weekly, in the hope that the answers to them will be given in the ‘Last Word’ column – regularly voted the most popular section of the magazine. Does Anything Eat Wasps? is a collection of the best that have appeared, including:

Why can’t we eat green potatoes? Why do airliners suddenly plummet? Does a compass work in space? Why do all the local dogs howl at emergency sirens? How can a tree grow out of a chimney stack? Why do bruises go through a range of colours? Why is the sea blue inside caves?

Many seemingly simple questions are actually very complex to answer. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. New Scientist’s ‘Last Word’ celebrates all questions – the trivial, the idiosyncratic, the baffling and the strange. This selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

The wonders of science…

· There are approximately 2200 bubbles in every aero

· NASA is attempting to brew a beer in space

· A pint provides about 5% of the RDA of several vitamins, so with 20 pints you’d be good to go

· If you managed to get fat enough to have a 60cm layer of flesh around you, you would hypothetically be bulletproof…of course, you’d also weigh 645kgs (100 stone)

· If you have the misfortune to have your head cut off, you could well be conscious for 30 seconds afterwards (enough time to cry out for a tourniquet perhaps…)

· Britain is sinking in the south and rising in the North

· If you drop a cat from a skyscraper 90% will survive (except if you drop it from the 7th floor apparently)

· If the earth was shrunk to the size of a squash ball it would be smoother than any in existence

· The average Briton poops 250 grams a day

· The average head weighs about 4.5kgs

· Don’t eat a potato that has got any green areas of skin (it has gone toxic and you could die)

· If you were trapped at the summit of an exploding volcano and needed to surf to safety (come on, it happens to all of us), you should use a plank of oak…

· The next time a girl asks you ’should I wear my black dress?’ say yes, it’s been proven that black makes you look slimmer…