Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs: 67 Digestible Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life
by Dr. Joe Schwarcz

Dr. Schwarcz presents "67 digestible commentaries on the fascinating chemistry of everyday life".

This is a great collection of true stories and anecdotes about science throughout history. From the invention of gunpowder to the investigation of medical frauds, Dr. Schwarcz describes the science and the personalities involved in a variety of odd, unusual, historic, and sometimes just-plain-gross circumstances.

Dr. Schwarcz's primary area of interest is in biochemistry and nutrition, and he talks quite a bit about dietary nutrients and supplements. It's certainly not a comprehensive guide to this topic, but it does provide some very important bits of wisdom that may help readers separate legitimate benefits from bunk.

There is also some practical household advice here, including discussions of the chemistry of shampoo and laundry detergent (you're probably using a lot more of both of these than you need!) and Dr. Schwarcz's recipe to remove skunk-spray odor.

And while we're on the subject of smelly substances, you'll learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about the chemical composition human intestinal gas.

This is a fun book that also takes care to emphasize good experimental science, and makes an effort to clear away some of the more ridiculous ideas about chemistry and about science in general, all while telling sometimes-ridiculous and always-entertaining stories to make the point.

Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs was book #32 in my goal of reading 50 books in 2009.