When will the planets align? Can it rain fish? How can you unlock the 90% of your brain that you never use? The actual answers to such questions may be different from what you would expect. In fact, the answers to many science questions can be quite surprising. In 2012, Dr. Baird began writing a series of immensely popular online articles for his website
Science Questions with Surprising Answers
, which were written for a general audience. He has now written over 350 of these articles. Each article takes the form of a highly-accurate answer to a particular science question, with information drawn from peer-reviewed journals, professional scientific organizations, university textbooks, and Dr. Baird's own first-hand expertise as a scientist. These articles do a marvelous job of making complex scientific concepts interesting and understandable to the average non-scientist. Of these 350+ online articles, this book contains the fifty most popular articles, as determined by the average number of article views per month. This book presents the articles in countdown fashion, ending at the number-one most popular surprising answer. Additionally, for this book, Dr. Baird has edited and expanded each of these science answers and added a bonus chapter. This ranked compilation of science questions and answers is an interesting representation of the science questions and answers that the world finds the most intriguing.