Fifty Curious Questions

About the Book

The pace of life is such that we rarely have the luxury to stop and think. We take so much on trust or assume that we know why something happens or the way things work. It is only when we stop and think that nagging doubts or questions creep into our subconscious? For those of us blessed (or is it cursed?) with an enquiring mind, once the seed of a question has been planted, we need to find the answer. The purpose of this book is to shed light on some of those nagging and irritating questions. There is no overarching design behind the fifty questions. They are just some of the topics that have puzzled me, a self-confessed ignoramus on all matters scientific, over the years; and I have now had the time to find the answers. Fortunately, greater brains than mine have grappled with some of the issues and carried out bizarre experiments or made quantum leaps of logic to push out further the frontiers of human knowledge. This book celebrates this quest and thirst for knowledge.

About the Author

A classics graduate from Trinity College, Cambridge, Martin Fone had a successful career in the insurance industry. He co-authored two books on public sector risk management that were adopted by the Institute of Risk Management as their standard textbooks. Since retiring, Martin has had the opportunity to develop his interests, mainly reading, writing, and thinking – or, as his wife puts it, locking himself away in his office for a few hours a day. In particular, he has been blogging and writing in his tongue-in-cheek, irreverent style about the quirks, idiocies, and idiosyncrasies of life, both modern and ancient. This book reflects this change in direction and follows on from his previous successful publication, Fifty Clever Bastards.