More How Do They Do That?: Wonders of the Modern World Explained

Like its predecessors How Do They Do That? and How Did They Do That? , the current volume is largely devoted to popular science, but some of the 102 essays deal with law, the arts, the press and various sociological phenomena. Markey and Sutton detail how an electric eel stuns its prey, how margarine is made to taste like butter, how crack is concocted and how scientists determine what dinosaurs ate. Curious about how cartoons are selected for the New Yorker , how People chooses its covers, how the major obituaries in the New York Times come about, or how to teach a bear to ride a bicycle? Look no further. This is a fine book for reading piecemeal. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Mar.)