Scientific American’s first issue was a single-page newsletter on August 28, 1845. Now owned by Nature Publishing Group, it had a 2008 world-wide print subscription of 733,000. Scientific American is a monthly magazine. This was a gift book.

The back cover begins with a few thought-provoking questions. “Why is the night sky dark? How do dolphins sleep without drowning? Why do hangovers occur? Will time travel ever be a reality? What makes a knuckleball appear to flutter? Why are craters always round?”

The back cover continues with the following: “There’s only one source to turn to for the answers to the most puzzling questions about the world of science: Scientific American. Writing in a fun and accessible style, an esteemed team of scientists and educators will lead you on a wild ride from the far reaches of the universe to the natural world right in your own backyard. Along the way, you’ll discover solutions to some of life’s quirkiest conundrums, such as why cats purr, how frogs survive winter without freezing, why snowflakes are symmetrical, and much more. Even if you haven’t picked up a science book since your school days, these tantalizing Q & A’s will shed new light on the world around you, inside you, below you, above you, and beyond!”

This book’s Contents cover 13 pages. To show you the span of its topics, I list its seven Parts and Chapters with the number of Q & A’s in each Chapter given in parentheses.

• PART 1, Celestial Bodies – ASTRONOMY – It Came from Outer Space: asteroids, meteors, and comets (4); Heavenly Bodies: planets and moons (7); Star Light, Star Bright: stars (3); Far, Far Away: the universe (3)
• PART 2, It’s Alive! – BIOLOGY – The Grass Is Always Greener: plants (3); Creepy Crawlers: insects (5); Under the Sea: ocean life (5); That’s a Horse of a Different Color: animal kingdom (5); Talkin’ About Evolution: evolution (3); When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth: dinosaurs (5)
• PART 3 – Being Human – It’s All in the Genes: human evolution (4); Oh, Behave! – human behavior (5); You Haven’t Aged a Bit: growing older (2); Anatomy 101: the human body (7); The Dr. Is In: health and medicine (7)
• PART 4 – As a Matter of Fact – CHEMISTRY – Elementary, My Dear Watson: the elements (3); If you Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen: everyday chemistry (7); Where There’s Smoke, There’s a Fire: more chemistry (2)
• PART 5 – There’s No Place Like Home – EARTH SCIENCE – Everybody Talks About It: weather (6); Up Above: the atmosphere (2); The Upper Crust: earth’s surface and below (5); Let’s Get Wet: oceans (2)
• PART 6 – Count on Me – MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS – Much Ado About Nothing: zero (1); Give ‘Em an Inch: measurement (3); Does Not Compute: computers (4)
• PART 7 – Let’s Get Physical – PHYSICS – Let There Be Light: light (4); I’m Very Particular: particles (2); Now Hear This: sound (4); In Theory: theoretical physics (5); You Won’t Believe Your Eyes: the physics of seeing (3); Shake It Up: everyday physics (4); Bottom of the 9th, Bases Loaded: the physics of baseball (2)

The number of Q & A's totals 127, thus an average of 2 pages for a Q & A. I found this book by Editors of Scientific American – www.scientificamerican.com – to be very similar to book 337 – Why Don’t Penguin’s Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions – by Editors of New Scientist – www.newscientist.com. The same person gave me both books and asked me to compare them. My answer is simple – they both stand side-by-side at the very high level of fascinating books about many science topics. They both give Q & A’s about questions that most of us can’t answer, but wish we could. So my answer is that I recommend both equally. Read and enjoy them both!