A great book that had me laughing out loud at some of the very strange scientific experiments, but they also made me think as well, and after reading the seriously deadly section, i am very grateful for my initials! I think this book would appeal to old and young adults, i will be passing it on to my eighteen year old son as i think he will love it. A great coffee table book which is bound to get the conversation flowing.

Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes which reward achievements which make people laugh and then make them think, brings us a collection of strange, funny and just plain amazing scientific research. This is the kind of book that makes you want to read out snippets to whoever is near. I did this so often that my husband quickly became exasperated and took the book away from me. However, within 10 minutes of him starting to read it, he was doing exactly the same thing. The research presented in the book covers a wide range of scientific disciplines so there's truly something for everyone. For example, a mere handful of the things I learned from reading This Is Improbable are: - you can't Bend It Like Beckham on Mars; - loud noises wake you up; - strapless dresses have inherent engineering challenges; - you can teach a tortoise to pretend to yawn; and - some scientists have too much time (& money) on their hands. If I were to think really hard about this book I suppose I'd say that it does have a tendency to the puerile and laddish in its interest in sport, underwear, poo and certain physical activities. However, in my experience, scientists (and I've known a few)tend to be big kids at heart and so have this sense of humour. Nothing in the book is offensive in any way, just amazing and funny. This is a book to dip in and out of - if you read too much at a time you forget what you've read as the last weird fact is pushed out of your brain by the next weird fact - perhaps someone should do some research on this. It's a bit like looking a paintings in a gallery - no matter how much you want to look at them and how beautiful they are you soon reach overload and diminish the experience. It's also wise not to rush through it as pacing yourself means you can enjoy it for longer. Reading a few pages a day will keep you interested and amused for months - not to mention anyone sitting near you.

This Is Improbable-it certainly is! It is not a book that you would usually read straight through (although I more or less did because I promised to review it) but more a book for dipping in and out of .It contains some fascinating stuff-the possible link between shoe heels and schizophrenia is one that comes to mind but there is also quite a lot of boring stuff. Do we really care which cinema seats a Bulgarian would choose for instance? It goes into considerable detail about the reseach and the exponents of it but tends to skip over any conclusions or possible applications This book would make a brilliant Xmas present for a teenager or twenty something with an enquiring mind but would probably not be so suitable for older friends and relations

I struggled to get into this book, I found it quite hard to follow. Disappointing all in all.