Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex: Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life

Dr. Joe Schwarcz

May 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Rich Miller

About this audiobook

In this new collection of bite-size pop science essays, bestselling author, chemistry professor, and radio broadcaster Dr. Joe Schwarcz shows that you can find science virtually anywhere you look. And the closer you look, the more fascinating it becomes. In this volume, we look through our magnifying glass at maraschino cherries, frizzy hair, duct tape, pickle juice, yellow school buses, aphrodisiacs, dental implants, and bull testes. If those don't tickle your fancy, how about aconite murders, shot towers, book smells, Swarovski crystals, French wines, bees, or head transplants? You can also learn about the scientific escapades of James Bond, California's confusing Proposition 65, the problems with oxygen on Mars, Valentine's Meat Juice, the benefits of pasteurization, the pros and cons of red light therapy, the controversy swirling around perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), why English cucumbers are wrapped in plastic, and how probiotics may have seeded Hitler's downfall. Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex answers all your burning questions about the science of everyday life.

About the author

Dr. Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, which has the mission of separating sense from nonsense. He hosts a radio show, appears on television, and writes a regular newspaper column. Dr. Joe is also an amateur magician and lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Rich Miller has performed onstage in everything from Shakespeare to Damn Yankees to August: Osage County. He also starred in the indie feature Ocatilla Flat.