What If You Could Unscramble an Egg?

by Robert Ehrlich

Book Overview

What if there were three sexes? What if men could have babies? What if the earth didn't have a moon? What if all the air in the room went into one corner? What if you fell into a black hole? What if you could unscramble an egg? Eavesdrop on these free-wheeling conversations and stretch your imagination in 120 different directions In these flippant "what if" dialogues about everything from sex, aliens, dogs, and dinosaurs to space, matter, and time,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813522544
• ISBN13: 9780813522548
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Science in the form of a series of "What if ..?" dialogs

Some of the most interesting things that you can do are to take an unusual, unlikely or impossible event, assume that it has happened and then logically follow through to the consequences. That is the content of this book and it is done with a combination of adherence to the laws of nature and humor. The events can be divided into two general categories: those that presuppose the alteration of a law of nature and those that might be possible within the current laws. For example, "What if men had babies?" is true for some species and probably would not require the violation of a physical or biological law. Certainly, it would require a redefinition of the word "man", but that is really not so difficult. An example of a change in a physical law is "What if Planck's constant were much larger?" The consequences of a change in a physical law are much more difficult to ponder, because we as yet do not know all of the interrelationships between the laws of nature. Nevertheless, the author handles them all with a good deal of humor, never straying farther from the current state of knowledge than is necessary. This is a very good general science book. Where necessary, the author explains some of the difficulties in assuming the precondition, and then describes the consequences in a relaxed, easy to follow style. Even if you have a phobia concerning science, you cannot help learning a great deal if you read this book.

An excellent, thought-provoking book.

I saw this book lying on the table at a friend's house and picked it up, which turned out to be a mistake, because I just kept reading it throughout my stay there. It kept me turning pages, wanting to find out more about the world. It is written in such a way that the average person can follow the concepts, and the dialogue between the two characters adds humor and allows for more questions to be asked. I highly reccomend this book for anyone mildly interested in learning more about the world they live in.