Lindbergh's Artificial Heart: More Fascinating True Stories from Einstein's Refrigerator

Several years ago, a New York high school teacher began using the Internet to post strange-but-true history and science factoids for his students to read. What began as an interesting Web site for students at Chatham High School soon became an internationally recognized page that garnered numerous awards, including Yahoo's Site of the Week. In 2001, some of the stories were assembled into Einstein's Refrigerator, which has been translated into Korean and Chinese.Now comes silliness squared with Lindbergh's Artificial Heart, author Steve Silverman's second collection of offbeat and often hilarious stories that offer a fascinating side of history that's not usually taught in school. o Lindbergh's artificial heart: Few people know it, but the famous aviator spent considerable time working on an artificial heart.o Exploding whale: What did the Oregon Department of Transportation do with a dead whale that washed up on one of its beaches' Suffice it to say their decision to blow it up was quite the blubber blunder.o Nose picking: Delve into the humorous findings of a study of this bad habit conducted by one of our institutions of higher learning.o The fastest charcoal lighter ever: Using liquid oxygen at your family barbecue may speed up the cooking, but it does have it's drawbacks . . . such as the fact that it vaporizes your grill. Carefully researched and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, the entertaining and educational stories within this book's 192 pages-many never before shared on-line or otherwise-will delight students and teachers alike.

High school science teacher Silverman recounts 33 stories of strange events and both useful and useless inventions from the 20th century. The collection is a sequel to published in 2001, and would make a fun gift for curious adults. Lacks an index. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In a follow-up to "Einstein's Refrigerator, " Silverman collects more quirky and humorous science stories that offer a fascinating side of history that's not usually taught in school.

Steve Silverman is a science teacher at Chatham High School, near Albany, N.Y. He currently teaches physics, earth science, and computer science. Most of the stories found in his two books, Einstein's Refrigerator and Lindbergh's Artificial Heart, are stories he first shared in his classroom or with friends via e-mail. In addition to teaching, Steve runs a pet business with his brother that has the largest on-line selection of hermit crab supplies in the world. He lives in Chatham, N.Y. His Web site is www.uselessinformation.org.