Have you ever wondered how polar bears stay warm? What about why there are dark spots on the moon? How about if dolphins talk to each other? What about if something lives at the bottom of the ocean? Well now there is a book which can answer these questions and so many more for you! Hailing from the team at the Natural History Museum of London, Do Penguins’ Feet Freeze?is a quirky collection of questions and answers focussing on the natural world.
I’ve always wondered why rain has a distinct smell, thanks to this book I have learnt that the scent is known as petrichor, and it is made when oils from plants combine with a special molecule called geosmin. Geosmin is made by special algae and bacteria. As it turns out our noses are especially sensitive to it when it combines with the plant’s oils, and that is why we can smell petrichor every time it rains.
Each page in this book poses a new question about the natural world and then answers it with fun images and informative text.
It is fun, real and perfect for curious young minds who have lots of questions about the natural world which surrounds us. They will be excited to share the new things they learn with everyone around them which to me is a win-win for any adult out there looking for a new read for their bedtime repertoire!
Wild and weird Q&As about the natural world that show that facts can be stranger than fiction! Do Penguins’ Feet Freeze? is a wonderfully weird collection of questions and answers about our natural world, written by the expert team at the Natural History Museum, London.
Packed with colourful images throughout, this book reveals:
Why do rabbits eat their own poo?
How do polar bears stay warm?
Can dolphins talk to each other?
Why does rain smell?
How clever is an octopus?
Which animal has spines in its throat?
Why do goats scream and faint?
Will an asteroid hit Earth?
Why are flamingos pink?
Do birds sneeze?
Why do honeybees dance?
… and many more cool and quirky facts that prove nature is often stranger than fiction!
Australia’s south-west is home to the richest flora diversity on the continent, but it is also one of the world’s ‘biodiversity hotspots’, where high concentrations of native species are experiencing ‘exceptional loss of habitat’. With particular focus on eucalypts, ecologist Viki Cramer outlines the detrimental effect of Western Australia’s timber industry from 1850s to 1920s when millions of acres of jarrah forest were cut down, followed by further felling due to bauxite mining. She describes the environmental effect of land clearing to create the state’s wheatbelt.
The author’s knowledge and love of native gums is palpable, as she interacts with experts and conservationists, exploring pockets of diverse woodland and forest. Cramer highlights the devastating frequency of bush fires in recent years and the inability of many species of eucalypt to regenerate, before the next inferno hits. This book is heart-wrenching to read about such loss of native habitat.
But there is hope with projects such as Gondwana Link, a project that is working to reconnect over 1000 kilometres of natural landscape from the Margaret River to Kalgoorlie and the Great Western Woodlands. Aboriginal ranger and conservation programs are creating a way forward for the custodianship of Country. Cramer’s final words are about having a love for our homes, and a responsibility to care for them, but ‘not just for the landscapes that sustain us spiritually and emotionally, but also those that sustain us materially’ – that provide our food, timber and minerals for our day-to-day lives.
Viki Cramer is a writer and ecologist who lives on Whadjuk Noongar Country in the south-west of Western Australia, home to some of the most extraordinary and diverse plant life on the planet.
She is a PhD-trained ecologist who spent the better part of two decades pondering the inner lives of plants and their relationships with each other and the soil they grow in. Viki has lived and worked in the mulga lands, brigalow belt, eucalypt woodlands and subtropical forests of Queensland, the monsoon vine forests of the Northern Territory, and the eucalypt forests and woodlands of Western Australia.
As a science writer, Viki has worked with Nature Research Partnership and Custom Media, Stem Matters, 10 Deserts Project, Bush Heritage Australia, CSIRO’s ECOS, the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia and the Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub. Her science journalism has been published by Ensia and Scientific American. Her non-fiction story ‘No change coming’ was selected for inclusion in the 2016 Radio National Earshot documentary Hot Summer Land. In 2021, Viki was awarded a Dahl Fellowship from Eucalypt Australia. The Memory of Trees is her first book.
In Hands of Time we get Rebecca Struther’s highly personalised take on the history of time measurement. This is more than just an account of the various devices used to measure time – sundials, water clocks, candles and ultimately mechanical clocks – because the mere fact that people measured time at all tells you quite a lot about the kind of society they lived in.
Sundials were located in town squares suggesting a need for coordination; Plato invented a water clock and King Alfred measured his time using candles that burnt in 20-minute increments, suggesting he was a busy guy; hourglasses can be used for navigation in all weather. Ring dials, portable sundials, were invented in the 16th century – the pace of life was picking up.
The first recognisable clocks were invented in the Muslim world in the 9th century and were powered by water. Water however can freeze or evaporate and has to be manually replaced after it runs out. The first fully mechanical clock was invented in the 14th century and was powered by an unspooling rope attached to a heavy weight – in a tower. The genius invention that made this practical was called a verge escarpment which controlled the rate of descent of the weight and communicated that motion to the clock mechanism which initially was a striking bell rather than moving hands on a dial.
As the course of the knowledge of astronomy developed rapidly so did the need for accurate time measurement.
At the same time accurate time measurement was essential to navigation. The next major step was the pendulum – used in a working clock by Christiaan Huygens and then the mainspring made a portable clock possible. The world’s first watch – hour hand only – was invented in Nuremburg in about 1505.
Having mastered the mechanics, humans proceeded to turn the watch into a collectible. For a long time – no pun intended – the watch was not particularly accurate but it was a status symbol. And the precision engineering required in attempts to improve watches inevitably flowed through to other areas, notably in the accurate determination of longitude.
Struthers takes the story up to the present – atomic clocks, quartz watches, digital watches. You can tell her heart isn’t in it and the advent of smart watches doesn’t cheer her up though she clings to the hope that just as e-books have not supplanted the real thing people will still want the analogue watch. Nevertheless, it does seem likely that the mechanical watch – a mechanism of astonishing ingenuity and often of considerable beauty, has run out of time.
Reviewed by Grant Hansen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Struthersis a watchmaker and historian from Birmingham. She co-founded her workshop, Struthers Watchmakers, in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in 2012. Rebecca and her watchmaker husband, Craig, use heritage equipment and traditional artisan techniques to restore antiquarian pieces and craft bespoke watches. They are among the last handful of watchmakers in the UK making watches from scratch. In 2017, Rebecca became the first watchmaker in British history to earn a PhD in horology. She lives in Staffordshire with Craig, her dog Archie, cats Isla and Alabama, and Morrissey the mouse.
The famous 1970s novel and film Jaws explored our collective and ancient fear and fascination of giant sharks. Big Meg – Otodus megalodon – is an extinct giant shark from 55 million years ago. Authors Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery present an engaging, easy-to-read, holistic, and intelligent story of Big Meg suitable for almost all readers.
With soft cartilage unlikely to survive as fossils, it’s all about the jaws and teeth. Early on, Tim recounts his personal experience as a youngster discovering a megalodon tooth while fossil hunting. (Tim handed the tooth over to his supervisor, then went on to become a palaeontologist; he and the mysterious tooth were reacquainted more than 40 years later.) After this enchanting human introduction, Big Meg is framed by science and palaeontology – megalodon origins, evolution, evidence, measurements, behaviour and extinction.
The tide soon turns, and the megalodon is reframed by various cultural perspectives. Insights from arts, history, anthropology, traditional and popular culture, archaeology, mythology and religion offer enjoyable, holistic understandings.
My favourites: a fossil megalodon tooth can be comfortably held in a human hand, a perfect, ready-made tool that our ancestors could pick up and use; the megalodon tooth is the official fossil of North Carolina; an ancient poem written from the perspective of a shark’s tooth; analysis of the films Jaws and The Meg; and using giant shark’s teeth for jewellery, trade, and as an underarm deodorant. Big Meg features a helpful reference list, index, colour photos/illustrations and author bibliography.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, many millions of years after its extinction, the megalodon still kills a couple of people each year, mostly divers and fossil hunters caught in deep waters. The megalodon continues to fascinate in an era of renewed respect for the environment and our relationship with it.
Reviewed by Mark Parry
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tim Flannery is a scientist, an explorer, a conservationist and a leading writer on climate change. He has held various academic positions including visiting Professor in Evolutionary and Organismic Biology at Harvard University, Director of the South Australian Museum, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum, Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, and Panasonic Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Macquarie University. His books include the award-winning international bestseller The Weather Makers, Here on Earth and Atmosphere of Hope. Flannery was the 2007 Australian of the Year. He is currently chief councillor of the Climate Council.
Emma Flannery is a scientist and writer. She has explored caves, forests and oceans across most of the globe’s continents in search of elusive fossils, animals and plants. Her research and writing on geology, chemistry and palaeontology has been published in scientific journals, children’s books and a number of museum-based adult education tours.
This very specialised book on the history of Australian Signals Intelligence might not appeal to every reader. It traces the story of Signals Intelligence from before Federation through the two world wars and into the later part of the 20th and early 21st Centuries.
It is a detailed and well-researched tome with the bibliography and notes running for over 60 pages. This is both its strength and weakness, as this specialisation and detail might delight the interested but might lose the average reader. It is also full of acronyms but thankfully the authors have included a list of them towards the back of the book.
Revealing Secretsexamines Australia’s relationship with Britain firstly and later with the USA and how information was collected and shared between these nations. There are snippets of history about individuals who played a significant role both in the collection and analysis of information. It also examines the initial reluctance of the military to accept military intelligence collected by non-military personnel, sometimes to their detriment.
While I personally found this book interesting, there were times when I was lost in the detail and the acronyms and consequently would lose the thread of the chapter or point being made.
This is a book for those interested in this area. Certainly, as the authors point out, this is an area which has not received the attention it should have in the history of the defence of Australia.
Clare Birgin’s career in DFAT spanned 30 years, with a focus on national security and intelligence. She had postings in Warsaw, Moscow, Geneva, and Washington DC as the Liaison Officer of the Office of National Assessments, followed by postings as Ambassador in Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Romania, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Subsequently she was a Visiting Fellow at the ANU before joining John Blaxland’s history writing team. She has been awarded the Polish Government’s Knight’s Cross Medal and the Bene Merito Medal by the former Polish Foreign Minister.
John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. He was also formerly a military intelligence officer, Head of SDSC and Director of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute. He is the author and editor of several publications on military history, intelligence and international security affairs.
This is the sort of collection to give readers literary indigestion, not because it is so rich, but just because it is so full of the weirdness that is Australia. Best taken in small doses, something quite achievable, as most of the tales are only a page or two long.
Pobjie has latched onto the idea that this is a seriously weird nation. Where else, indeed, would one find several micronations; lots of disappearing ship stories; strange animals roaming the bush, ranging from panthers to lions and including yowies and bunyips; really odd moments in sport; murders most foul and odd; and fake medieval castles.
Among those odd moments in sport are the one-sided Rugby League final in 1909 (a seriously strange year all round, according to the author); the infamous underarm bowling incident in cricket; as well as a couple of anecdotes involving fast bowler Dennis Lillee. Who created the Marree Man? And where is Ned Kelly’s skull?
While there may be no answers in this book for those questions, it raises plenty of others, as well as recounting tales about a drowned prime minister and the dashing opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s a definite antipathy to Victoria and Melbourne showing, and while not all the tales are funny ha-ha, they certainly are funny peculiar.
Although Pobjie’s style of wit may grate with some readers, 100 Weirdest Tales From Across Australia would make a wonderful gift for travellers newly arrived in Australia, right up there with tales of drop bears, and killer crocs, spiders and snakes.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Pobjie is the author of Error Australis, Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts and Second Best as well as countless articles about TV, sport, politics and the meaning of life scattered throughout the Australian media landscape. He lives in Sydney where he spends his days panicking about deadlines.
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Flannery is a scientist, an explorer, a conservationist and a leading writer on climate change. He has held various academic positions including visiting Professor in Evolutionary and Organismic Biology at Harvard University, Director of the South Australian Museum, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum, Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, and Panasonic Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Macquarie University. His books include the award-winning international bestseller The Weather Makers, Here on Earth and Atmosphere of Hope. Flannery was the 2007 Australian of the Year. He is currently chief councillor of the Climate Council.
Emma Flannery is a scientist and writer. She has explored caves, forests and oceans across most of the globe’s continents in search of elusive fossils, animals and plants. Her research and writing on geology, chemistry and palaeontology has been published in scientific journals, children’s books and a number of museum-based adult education tours.
Clare Birgin’s career in DFAT spanned 30 years, with a focus on national security and intelligence. She had postings in Warsaw, Moscow, Geneva, and Washington DC as the Liaison Officer of the Office of National Assessments, followed by postings as Ambassador in Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Romania, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Subsequently she was a Visiting Fellow at the ANU before joining John Blaxland’s history writing team. She has been awarded the Polish Government’s Knight’s Cross Medal and the Bene Merito Medal by the former Polish Foreign Minister.
John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. He was also formerly a military intelligence officer, Head of SDSC and Director of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute. He is the author and editor of several publications on military history, intelligence and international security affairs.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR