Here are twenty-one unexpected and fascinating tales of science's stranger facts and episodes-from why we laugh, to why moths fly to the light, to how slinging drinks affects both memory and perception in a barmaid's brain (for the better!).

Best-selling author and media personality Jay Ingram offers investigations from the very edges of science that evoke the impressive breadth of the scientific mind and demonstrate how science works. Ingram explores how science adds to a re-examination of history with startling new theories about the Salem witches and a psychiatric profile of Joan of Arc. He describes remarkable battles-from the parasitic nastiness of cowbirds to the microscopic viciousness of bacteriophages. And he lets us in on some of the odder concerns of scientists: Will we be able to build a ladder attaching earth to an orbiting satellite? Is it possible that early humans spent their lives in water instead of on land?

Surprising, witty, and always edifying, The Barmaid's Brain serves up a splendid cocktail of fact, theory, and anecdote guaranteed to entertain and stimulate.