THE BOOK OF POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC SCIENCE

50 EXPERIMENTS FOR

DARING YOUNG SCIENTISTS

SEAN CONNOLLY

PUBLICATION DATE: 1 September 2011

£8.99 ● Hardback ● ISBN 978-184831-260-9

WINNER of the AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books

Wizard Books can help to eradicate those back-to-school blues: presenting a brilliantly illustrated book of experiments that encourages science-shy kids and reluctant readers. It will also definitely get your kitchen messy in the process.

THE BOOK OF POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC SCIENCE takes you on an electrifying trip through history, revealing the fun and excitement of science while showing how death-defying scientific breakthroughs are part of a bigger human picture laced with discovery and adventure.

From the first use of fire and stone tools right up to the Large Hadron Collider, award-winning author Sean Connolly reveals how dozens of scientific advances lie on a knife’s edge between endless possibility and endless destruction. (Just think of the recent ‘potentially catastrophic science’ at work at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan.) Shining a light on examples like these and many others, THE BOOK OF POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC SCIENCE explains their importance and the brilliant science behind them.

But it doesn’t stop there. THE BOOK OF POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC SCIENCE gives the reader a chance to experience each breakthrough with hands-on experiments. Household items get put to use to demonstrate nuclear chain reactions, launching spacecraft, the spread of smallpox, the properties of the Wheel and measuring the speed of light (using a microwave oven and marshmallows). This book will shows you how to parachute an egg from an upstairs window, distil DNA from a half-eaten banana, spark lightning in your mouth – and much more.

With fifty awesome experiments for the daring young scientist, THE BOOK OF POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC SCIENCE demonstrates that some of the best learning doesn’t necessarily have to be in the classroom.

SEAN CONNOLLY is an author and father of three who lives in Corsham, Wiltshire. This is his latest book aimed at demystifying science for children and making it fun.

For feature suggestions, interview requests and review copies,

please contact Henry Lord: henry.lord@iconbooks.co.uk / 020 7700 9962