OK, we admit it, they’re cute. That’s why they are on the front of the book. But when asked, we had no idea why orangutans were a strange orange colour – one that didn’t even seem to match their environment. It was a long time before we received any response to the question too, suggesting that even the experts were a little unsure. But now we think we know – turn to page 30 to find out.
You’ll also discover among these pages why tigers have stripes rather than spots, why blue-footed boobies have, erm, blue feet and whether kittiwakes can fly upside down. And it’s not all about animals. We have the lowdown on any number of clouds, strange bubbles and weird ice… and all in glorious colour.
Readers of our earlier books such as Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? and Does Anything Eat Wasps? will notice a difference in this latest collection of questions and answers from New Scientist’s Last Word column – photographs: and lots of them.
Most haven’t been supplied by professionals. In fact, nearly all have been taken by readers of The Last Word column in New Scientist magazine and on its website. Some of the photographs are extraordinary, many are unique and some are a bit fuzzy. But we can handle that because they tell the visual story of some extraordinary phenomena, taken on the run by members of the public.
And that is the essence of this book: a celebration of the wonder of our world that any inquisitive person lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time can witness and record – if we are prepared to keep our eyes open. Specialists in their fields have spent years waiting to capture these moments but they have been beaten to it by readers of New Scientist and its books.
All of which means we can now tell you the story of why flies sometimes explode, what you should do when your hair stands on end (and why it’s very, very important to do it quickly) and why Mount Fuji sometimes appears to be wearing a hat.
If you have any similar images that you have captured somewhere in the world – from your back garden to coldest Antarctica – and have always wondered what on earth they show, The Last Word can help. Every week hundreds of questions pour into our offices, some with photographs, others without. You can add yours to the list, or help us answer the ones we are still puzzling over. Visit www.newscientist.com/lastword to ask a question, or help us answer one. And buy the magazine to check out our weekly page. You could even appear in the next book (or at least your photograph could).
Mick O’Hare