SCIENCE BOOKS: Books that answer science's more off-beat questions are gaining popularity CLAIRE O'CONNELL
Why is snot green? The question may not have exercised the minds of heavyweight thinkers over the centuries, but boy does it grab a six-year-old's attention.
Why is snot green? - a tome that promised to answer this and other burning questions. We had to buy it and find out.
What a wise investment it was. Since then, we have consulted "the snot book" on sticky questions from global warming to what tigers eat. As the paraphernalia of Science Week gets packed away for another year, it's worth reflecting on the power of such inexpensive paperbacks to encourage an interest in science.
Every year exam results in maths and science prompt soul searching, but there's an even deeper issue: PhDs and post-docs aside, science and technology have become such an integral part of life that our children could lose out if they don't at least feel comfortable around biology, physics, chemistry and maths.
Popular science books mushroomed as a genre after astrophysicist Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, but frankly it was questioned whether many readers actually waded through such weighty works, or just lobbed them nonchalantly on the coffee table for show.
Now a more digestable breed is storming the bestseller charts: lists of odd questions and factoids that hook readers into a wider understanding of basic scientific principles.
The "snot book" is a prime example of how the format can engage children's attention. It came about during a meeting at London's Science Museum, where staff member Glenn Murphy found himself explaining to publishers the bottom-up approach when pitching science to kids. "I believe there's no point taking the classic textbook approach of asking what do they need to know about astronomy, biology or physics and working down from there.
"It's better to start by asking what do they want to know, or what do they already know, and working upwards," says Murphy.
"When kids come into the Science Museum they don't ask 'when exactly was the Big Bang, and can you explain what it consisted of?'. They say 'why is the sky blue?' or 'why do planets spin?' I told [the publishers] that some kid asked me 'do rabbits fart, and if so, why can't you smell it?' You could write a whole book called 'Do Rabbits Fart?' and it'd do a blinder. Everybody laughed and the meeting drew to a close," he says.
A week later, Murphy had accepted an offer to write the "farting rabbit" book, which was later re-titled with the slightly less offensive snot question.
"More than ever, a knowledge of science and technology is a required part of being an informed, intelligent member of a democratic society. If you vote to ban GM crops or stem-cell research, that's fine, as long as you know why you're doing it. But 'it sounds scary' is a wholly inadequate reason," says Murphy, now a full-time author in North Carolina
It's not just for kids. The bite-sized question-and-answer style reels in adults too, judging by the success of books from The Last Wordcolumn in New Scientist, where readers themselves provide the answers.
In 2005, the fourth volume - Does Anything Eat Wasps?- created a stir when it sold half a million copies, recalls series editor Mick O'Hare from New Scientist.
"That surprised everyone because it had an initial print run of about 10,000, but it vanished in about seven minutes so they printed some more," he says.
The secret? A catchy title and good timing.
"It's a stocking-filler book, it's something you sit on the loo reading, it's not really meant to be worthy," says O'Hare.
Keeping with the snappy titles and festive opportunity, the sixth volume - Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? - hit the shelves last month, but it has to contend with a glut of competition from the bizarre-scientific-question bandwagon.
It's a lofty ideal, to convert people to science who might otherwise hit the snooze button, but is there a danger of dumbing the whole thing down to make a quick buck?
"Dumbing down isn't about how much you simplify - it's about how you simplify," says Murphy.
"If you simplify correctly, you're facilitating understanding. If you simplify incorrectly, you're dumbing down.
"The trick lies in using simile and metaphor to relate new ideas to ones they're already familiar with, while still preserving enough of the core principle to keep it accurate," he says.
So if you have a budding Einstein or an entrenched Luddite at home, slip a bizarre science book into their Christmas stocking. It won't break the bank and everyone might learn something - even if it's just why snot is green.
• Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? edited by Mick O'Hare is published by Profile Books. Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy is published by MacMillan Children's Books. See glennmurphybooks.com
