Ask the Experts

The fourth book in our Ask the Experts series, The Environment tackles questions about the world around us. In this book, our experts field queries on the weather, natural disasters, natural resources, climate change, and unusual phenomena.

For going on two decades, Scientific American's "Ask the Experts" column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We've taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains. Now, we've combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences. The Human Body and Mind is the third book in this series, and it tackles questions about our own strange and mysterious biology. Our experts field queries on evolution, bodily quirks, and psychological feats. Have you ever wondered why humans lost their body hair? Curious about what causes a hangover? Or what makes that popping sound when we crack our knuckles? What about the oft-cited maxim that we only use 10 percent of our brains? Professors, scientists, and biologists provide answers that are at once accurate, understandable, and sometimes just plain funny.

For going on two decades, Scientific American's “Ask the Experts” column has been answering listener's questions on all fields of science. We've taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains. Now, we've combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences. The first title in our series, Physics, and Math, explain a wide range of natural phenomena and mathematical concepts. Have you ever wondered what exactly antimatter is? How about game theory, quantum mechanics, and the origin of pi? Mathematicians and professors from universities across the country tackle these topics, drawing on their extensive expertise to give answers that are at once accurate and comprehensible by those who haven't studied physics or math since high school.

For going on two decades, Scientific American's "Ask the Experts" column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We've taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains. Now, we've combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. Organized by subject, each title provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences. The second title in our series-Astronomy-looks skyward and explains a variety of universal phenomena and theories. Are you curious about how planets acquire rings or what creates those gorgeous spiral arms around galaxies? Or maybe you want to know why the Big Bang didn't collapse into a black hole. Astrophysicists, professors, and scientists tackle questions about stars, planets, asteroids, galaxies, and nebulae, the expanding universe as well as the oddities-black holes, wormholes, and dark matter. Listen in and find out what we know-and what we don't know-about these wonders.