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Twisted True Tales from Science: Insane Inventors
Stephanie Bearce
Prufrock Press Inc.
paperback, $8.95, 150pp.
ISBN-13: 978-1-61821-570-3
Surprise! Another Stephanie Bearce book appeared unexpectedly in the mailbox. This one is called “Twisted True Tales From Science: Insane Inventors.” The “Medical Mayhem” book was worth many Eeeoooos…and so is this one. Our kids are going to just love knowing so many truths about science and medicine without blinking twice while we grownups are going to continue thinking “Eeeeoooo.”
Just look at the Table of Contents:
| Don’t Try This At Home | Anything For Science |
| Insane Inventors No-Nose Tycho Needle-Eye Newton Sir Laughing Gas Puking for Science Shy Scientist Step Right Up to the Science Circus Inventor’s Lab: Make an Electromagnet Inventor’s Lab: Build Your Own Flashlight |
Dr. Disgusting He Ate What??? Take the Plunge Hero Inventor X-ray Queen Nikola Tesla’s Death Ray Madam Curie Fights a War Inventor’s Lab: Get Glowing Inventor’s Lab: Trick Your Eyes |
| Strange Days of Science | |
| The AC/DC War A Heart for Science Dr. Doggenstein Human Crash Test Dummy Rocket Man Death by Invention Insanely Fun |
Inventor’s Lab: Make a Bottle Squirt Gun
Inventor’s Lab: Build a Moving Force Machine |
Stephanie Bearce tells us that “Modern humans take inventions for granted. They sleep on a nice comfortable mattress that isn’t full of bugs and rodents because inventors in the 1800s discovered that tightly packed cotton keeps out unwanted critters.”
She goes on to give many examples of inventions that were logical or even were accidents. And it is amazing that so many scientists experimented on themselves. We are told that the legend about Newton and the apple is not true. You will have to read this book to find out what the truth is!!
I enjoyed the story of Henry Cavendish who loved his books, his laboratory, and hated people!! He came from English nobility but was so shy that he even had trouble talking to his family. Cavendish experimented with chemistry, among many other things, and became the first scientist to ever isolate the element hydrogen. “His research was nearly 100 years ahead of other scientists,’ but many of his discoveries were not credited to him until nearly 60 years after his death. He was so shy that he didn’t want to publish his work.”
Twisted True Tales From Science: Insane Inventions is full of true stories that most of us have never heard before. Because of Stephanie Bearce we are entertained and at the same time more educated than we have ever been. These scientists/inventors thought in ways so different from the usual. And this is a good reminder to those who work with gifted children that wonderful brains need freedom to think in original ways.
Elaine S. Wiener is Associate Editor for Book Reviews for the Gifted Education Communicator and can be reached at 17elaine@att.net.