Lucky Science

It's amazing how many major, and not-so-major, scientific discoveries were made by accident: penicillin, silly putty, photography, gravity, and many more. Royston Roberts (Serendipity, not reviewed) and daughter Jeanie describe a number of these accidents and provide many simple but enlightening experiments to demonstrate the various principles that arise. Kids in the recommended 10-15 age group, however, might resent instructions that seem to baby them, as when they're told to have an adult fry eggs for them to demonstrate the properties of Teflon. Still, the wealth of interesting and clearly explained information more than compensates for slights the young scientist might feel in the experiment sections. Aside from a fun and informative read, the Robertses stress that accidents like these only lead to scientific breakthroughs if one knows how to interpret them; or, as Louis Pasteur put it, "chance favors the prepared mind." Young scientists are encouraged to think for themselves, to analyze and interpret, so that when serendipitous events occur they know how to make the most of them. (Kirkus Reviews)