edited by Mick O'Hare Profile Books, HK$120
New Scientist magazine continues to milk a cash cow in the shape of compilations of readers' questions and answers from its Last Word column. The third collection, following Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?, is Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? The book contains 102 questions in nine subject-specific chapters. Some are intriguing: if you have to eat parts of your body, which non-organs are the most nutritious? Some useful: why does a lump of sugar placed under a cover with cheese stop the latter growing mouldy? Some silly: could hamster power be an environmentally friendly answer to the impending energy crisis? And some, such as that chosen for the title of the book, seemingly ridiculous but interesting on investigation. So do polar bears mope if left alone? One reader says big predatory mammals isolate themselves to avoid competition with others of their species. Then there are the questions that make good party chatter: why does red wine become lighter in colour as it ages but white wine darker? Reading the book will make you want the first two in the series.