They All Laughed.: From the Light Bulbs to Lasers : The Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives

A look at science's most exciting discoveries challenges common misconceptions about the invention of such items as electricity, the light bulb, the camera, the polio vaccine, the television, and others. 30,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

An estimable science writer ( Rainbows and Curveballs ) and even more expert TV producer/reporter ( Newton's Apple on PBS) here turns to a familiar, perhaps even stale form in his retelling of 24 famous "serendipity of science" stories, which reveal the hard-science origins of common domestic products and processes: Vaseline from petroleum, Velcro from a microscopic examination of the design of cockleburssp ok , microwave ovens from radar research, and so on. He offers lots of science trivia, but very little real science; James Burke's similar but more serious and probing The Day the Universe Changed has a reach and depth apparently beyond Flatow's grasp in this slight book, which lacks creativity. Nonetheless, it will appeal as a reference book to science teachers and aspiring young inventors.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.