How to Dunk a Doughnut

In 1998 Len Fisher attracted world-wide attention with his experiments on the physics of biscuit dunking. These won him a spoof IgNobel Prize, a letter of commendation from the royal society and a nomination as an enemy of the people by the Times newspaper. In this humourous, accessible book, the author tells the true stories behind this and other projects, taking a scientific look at the familiar and the everyday as a way of opening the door to science, and showing, from an insider's viewpoint, what it feels like to be a scientist, what things scientists do, why they do it and how they go about it. Scientists exploring the most commonplace and mundane phenomena have provided insight into some of the most profound scientific questions and uncovered some of nature's deepest laws - see Count Rumford, who discovered the principle of heat convection after burning his mouth on hot apple pie. We can in turn use these laws to understand and improve our performance in many everday activities, as How to Dunk a Doughnut shows, demonstrating the benefits of a more scientific approach to things as diverse as sport, DIY and sex.