Science Askew: A Light-hearted look at the scientific world

Rating:
Summary: Witty! Clever! Splendid!
Review: I wrote and published this review in The Journal of Irreproducible Results, the science humor magazine, vol. 48 #4, November 2004:

If you like JIR, you'll love Science Askew. Science satires, cartoons, puns, and parodies range from chapter-long tales down to punchy 1-liners.

Among the rules of the lab:
* Experiments must be reproducible; they should fail the same way each time.
* Experience is directly proportional to equipment ruined.
* Teamwork is essential; it allows you to blame someone else.

My reaction upon reading most of the articles was "we should run this item in JIR!". But we reprinted an entire chapter in the last issue, and we published 2 of the articles (by the illustrator, retired geologist John C. Holden) in the 1970s, and the whole thing is already in a nifty package - this book.

From the computer expert's glossary:
* On-line: The idea that a human being should always be accessible to a computer.
* Machine-Independent Program: A program that will not run on any machine.
* Documentation: Instructions translated from Swedish by Japanese for English-speaking people.

Simanek and Holden include fuel for debunking pseudoscience, and teaching students the distinctions. Ever the teacher, Simanek takes several opportunities to "talk straight" and point out legitimate science lessons. The pair of articles arguing opposing sides of the DHMO "controversy" afford chuckles, as well as stimulation for student exercises. "Di-Hydrogen Monoxide", of course, is H2O.

What engineers say and what they mean by it:
* "Test results were extremely gratifying": It works, and are we ever surprised!
* "The entire concept will have to be abandoned": The only guy who understood the thing quit.
* "The designs are well within allowable limits": We just barely made it, by stretching a point or 2.

Holden contributes many clever and witty illustrations. Several other authors appear too, along with some items that have circulated worldwide on the Web which could not be traced to their original authors.

Some of Simanek's Laws of Statistics:
* Anyone who trusts in statistics is taking a chance.
* When 2 lines of a graph cross, that must be significant.
* Once human subjects find out what you have discovered about their behavior, they begin to behave differently.

There are no important typos, and the trivial ones won't distract or confuse anyone.

Among the "do-it" 1-liners:
* Professors do it absent-mindedly
* Cosmologists do it with a bang
* Logicians do it symbolically

Institute of Physics Publishing produced this book extremely well. The type is clear, the illustrations crisp, and all the parts are where they ought to be, except that there is no index. The paper is very high quality. The binding is excellent, comfortable, tight, and ought to last a long time. That's essential for this book, because the owner, friends, students, visitors, and everyone else lucky enough to happen upon it will dip into it time after time.

Despite excellent achievements by the authors and producers, this book has not been reviewed or advertised as much as it merits because the publisher refuses to send out many review copies, advertises very little outside its own periodicals, and discourages retailers.

Science Askew belongs in academic libraries, both for amusement and to stimulate classwork. Scientists, doctors, and educators will love this book. And it makes a splendid gift for anyone with technical knowledge and a sense of - or need for - humor.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: If you want a good chuckle this is the book for you. One of the chapters is "Statistics is a Chancy Business" with a wonderful drawing of Wall Street, giving a historical timeline. One section gives us statistics to help us understand the real world. For example, "Did you hear about the statistician who drowned while wading in a pond with an average depth of six inches?", or "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital".

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: If you want a good chuckle this is the book for you. One of the chapters is "Statistics is a Chancy Business" with a wonderful drawing of Wall Street, giving a historical timeline. One section gives us statistics to help us understand the real world. For example, "Did you hear about the statistician who drowned while wading in a pond with an average depth of six inches?", or "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital".

Rating:
Summary: A pleasure to read.
Review: This book is one of those rare books that has a lot to offer, including amusing puns and deep philosophical ideas. And it is just a nice book to own. The type style and quality paper make it very attractive. Simanek's wit and Holden's illustrations complement each other nicely. The focus farm where the sons raise meat is a pun that is hard to top. The warning about Dihydrogen Monoxide(by Dan Galvin) and the Hazards of solar power(by Donald Simanek) have great pedagogical value for one and all. As Donald and John say, the book is "An Almanac of Scientific Ephemera."
WARNING: this book is not written for the scientist only. There are no academic degrees required to enjoy and appreciate this book. A careful reading of the book is probably as rewarding as any science course you will take. In fact, as with most good writing, a good course could be built around this publication. I dare you to put it down.