Author Description

Each week, the "Daedalus" column offers a new scientific scheme to challenge accepted notions of scientific principles, but these schemes are neither feasible nor completely absurd. At first glance, the Daedalus pieces are entertaining, but upon further investigation, one sees that these schemes have a serious purpose and raise many crucial questions. In fact, the Daedalus column is one of the longest-running jokes on the scientific scene, appearing in New Scientist in the mid-sixties and transferring to Nature in the eighties. This book is a compilation and elaboration of roughly 100 selected Daedalus schemes, written by Jones. The first collection, The Inventions of Daedalus (1982), sold well over 10,000 copies. And like the earlier book, this new compilation integrates a selected article with a "From Daedalus's Notebook" piece that is written especially for the book. This piece supports the proposal with background material, data, calculations, references, and so on. As well, each article is accompanied by cartoon illustrations, making this compilation attractive to both scientists and the general reader.