The Totally Useless History of Science

Forget Boyle’s law, polymer chains, cellular respiration and fields of force – here’s all the really interesting stuff you never learnt during science lessons at school. But this isn’t fantasy, this is hard fact:

 Fact: The stethoscope owes its invention in 1816 to a young doctor who was too embarrassed to put his ear to a young woman’s chest Fact: In 1954 a Soviet surgeon grafted a puppy’s head onto the shoulder of a German shepherd dog Fact: Since falling off a ship in 1992, fleets of yellow rubber ducks have provided invaluable data on the currents of the world’s oceans Physics: from experiments involving the slow removal of one’s stockings to the Dutchman who tested the Doppler effect by placing an entire orchestra on a railway wagon. Zoology: from the spontaneous generation of mice from rotting wheat to the ‘discovery’ that swallows spend their winters at the bottom of lakes Botany: from the rhododendron honey that makes men mad to the use of ginger as an equine suppository Meteorology: from showers of frogs and fish to the man struck by lightning seven times Astronomy: from the Greek philosopher who believed the sun was a great disk of blazing metal to the American astronomer who saw irrigation canals on Mars