Why You Can Never Get to the End of the Rainbow and Other Moments of Science

DON GLASS is Special Projects Director at public radio station WFIU-FM and the radio producer of A Moment of Science. PAUL SINGH was Professor of Physics at Indiana University and the science producer of A Moment of Science until his retirement in 1992. STEPHEN FENTRESS is a writer who was most recently Producer/Music Director at the Strasenburgh Planetarium of the Rochester (N.Y.) Museum and Science Center, where he wrote and produced planetarium shows.

• Sample ContentsBenjamin Franklin and the Swatches on the SnowOnce You've Had It, You Can't Catch It AgainWhy Is the Sky Blue?Static ElectricityWhy One Rotten Apple Can Spoil the BarrelSuperconductorsDoes Smoking Cause Lung Cancer?What Is a Gene?Why Do Cats' Eyes Glow at Night?Paul Ehrlich, Dyes, and DrugsWhy You Can Never Get to the End of the RainbowThe Difference between a Square and a DiamondSounds over a Lake at EveningDo the Best Dogs Come from the Pound?Flip a Coin, Beat the OddsStroboscopic Stagecoach WheelsWhy Are Bells Made of Metal?Why Rivers Don't Flow in a Straight LineWhat's Your Average Speed?The Basic Unit of LifeHow Aspirin Got Its NameCold Water at the Bottom of a LakeWhy Do Women Live Longer Than Men?A Thirty Percent Chance of RainLimeysHow Does Lung Cancer Start?The Light of SpringVitamines and VitaminsColors and Their OppositesHow Does the World Look to a Bee?Death of the Dinosaurs: A Quick ReviewWhy Do We Put Cut Flowers in Water?Life without ZeroProstaglandinsSweetened Condensed MilkWhat the Weather Report Doesn't Tell YouWhy Mowing the Lawn Doesn't Kill the GrassGalileo's Job ApplicationThe Consequences of SmallnessOzone and IceBenjamin Franklin's Madeira Wine SurpriseViruses Attack BacteriaThe Birth of the Atomic AgeHonest Answers to Personal QuestionsRisk AssessmentBroken Symmetry: Cosmetic or Cosmic?AntimatterDoes Nature Abhor a Vacuum?How Does Water Get to the Top of a Tree?What Could Change Earth's Climate?Death of the Dinosaurs RevisitedHow Many Girls, How Many Boys?Modern Biology in a Monastery GardenNeutrinos and the End of the UniverseCooking an EggThe Most Important Fly in the History of ScienceHow Plants FightSort Nuts by Shaking the CanEverybody Talks about Genes—But What Do They Do?How Cockraoches Get AwayA New Person from a Nose?The Mysterious Number PiNewton's RainbowThe Sweet Spot on a Baseball BatMake an Image without a LensFluorescent LampsCarbon DatingSoap Bubbles and Butterfly WingsTracing the Roots of EnergyLight Takes TimeRead Fine Print through a PinholeInfection: A Struggle between Two OrganismsWhy Doesn't a Pregnant Women Reject Her Fetus?The Floating Cork TrickMicrobursts and Airplane CrashesWhat's inside an Atom?When Pop Bottles Don't Blow Up... and When They DoIt's Not What You Hear—It's When You Hear ItWeightless WaterGetting Robbed in the Camera ObscuraSperm Meets Egg: What Really HappensThe Curve of a Meandering RiverWhy Chickens Don't Have Webbed FeetOur Most Distant Relatives