Seriously Curious: The Facts and Figures That Turn Our World Upside Down

Cover......Page 2
Title Page......Page 5
Copyright Page......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Introduction: the case for being seriously curious......Page 12
Seriously curious: unexpected explanations to stretch your mind......Page 14
Why polygamy makes civil wars more likely......Page 15
Why there is a shortage of sand......Page 17
How shoelaces untie themselves......Page 19
Why the sea is salty......Page 21
Why diamond production may be about to peak......Page 23
Why Boko Haram prefers female suicide bombers......Page 25
Move over, oil. Which countries have the most lithium?......Page 27
Why the global arms trade is booming......Page 29
What do think-tanks do?......Page 31
How to measure the black market for cigarettes......Page 33
Mapping the rise and fall of witch-hunting......Page 34
Globally curious: peculiar proclivities from around the world......Page 37
Why spaghetti is smuggled across the Sahara......Page 38
Why so many places are called Guinea – and turkeys don’t come from Turkey......Page 39
Why New Zealand has so many gang members......Page 41
Why the exorcism business is booming in France......Page 43
Why China has the world’s worst flight delays......Page 45
Why Somaliland is east Africa’s strongest democracy......Page 47
Why yurts are going out of style in Mongolia......Page 49
Which cities have the highest murder rates?......Page 51
Why young Britons are committing fewer crimes......Page 54
How car colours reflect Britain’s national mood......Page 56
Why Swedes overpay their taxes......Page 58
Mapping the world’s mega-rich......Page 60
Why nobody knows how many Nigerians there are......Page 61
Why Chinese children born in the year of the dragon are more successful......Page 63
Sexual selection: love, sex and marriage......Page 65
Why the sperm-bank business is booming......Page 66
How porn consumption changed during Hawaii’s false alarm......Page 68
Why transgender people are being sterilised in some European countries......Page 70
How opinions on acceptable male behaviour vary by age, sex and nationality......Page 72
What porn and listings sites reveal about Britain’s gay population......Page 76
Attitudes to same-sex relationships around the world......Page 80
Why couples do more housework than single people......Page 82
What men and women think about their partners’ careers and housework......Page 84
How fracking boosts birth rates......Page 86
What explains Europe’s low birth rates?......Page 88
Why America still allows child marriage......Page 90
Also on the menu: oddities of food and drink......Page 92
The surprising link between avocados and crime......Page 93
Why China’s dog-meat market has expanded......Page 95
Why obesity is a growing problem in poor countries......Page 97
The Argentine–American lemon war of 2001–2018......Page 99
Which European country has the most craft breweries per person?......Page 101
Why some American cities don’t like food trucks......Page 103
How wine glasses have got bigger over the years......Page 105
Why food packaging is good for the environment......Page 107
Peak booze? Alcohol consumption is falling around the world......Page 109
Why wheat has a more complex genome than humans......Page 111
Asian countries are eating more wheat......Page 113
By the numbers: economical, with the truth......Page 115
The easiest way to get rich in America......Page 116
Why women still earn much less than men......Page 118
Why China is rebuilding the old Silk Road......Page 120
Why “death taxes” have fallen out of favour......Page 122
Wealth inequality has been increasing since the stone age......Page 124
What makes something a commodity?......Page 126
Does longevity always increase with national wealth?......Page 128
Why do companies exist?......Page 130
Millennial Americans are just as loyal to their employers as previous generations......Page 132
Why old-fashioned manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back......Page 134
Why India scrapped its two biggest bank notes......Page 136
The roots of the gender pay gap lie in childhood......Page 138
Department of white coats: science, health and the environment......Page 140
Can young blood really rejuvenate the old?......Page 141
What people want at the end of life......Page 143
How China reduced its air pollution......Page 145
Why forests are spreading in the rich world......Page 147
The Arctic could be ice-free by 2040, 30 years sooner than expected......Page 148
Why there’s something in the water in New Zealand......Page 151
Measures to discourage smoking are spreading around the world......Page 153
Why “gene drives” have yet to be deployed in the wild......Page 156
Why it is so hard to fix India’s sanitation problems......Page 158
Why some deadly diseases are hard to eradicate......Page 160
Why China is sick of foreign waste......Page 163
Why are wolves coming back in France?......Page 165
Why biggest isn’t fastest in the animal kingdom......Page 167
Geek speak: getting technical......Page 169
What is a brain-computer interface?......Page 170
The link between video games and unemployment......Page 172
What do robots do all day?......Page 174
Why 5G might be both faster and slower than previous wireless technologies......Page 176
Mobile phones are more common than electricity in much of sub-Saharan Africa......Page 178
Why self-driving cars will mostly be shared, not owned......Page 181
How ride-hailing apps reduce drink-driving......Page 183
What is augmented reality?......Page 186
Why we’re still waiting for the space elevator......Page 188
How astronomers spotted the first interstellar asteroid......Page 190
Why drones could pose a greater risk to aircraft than birds......Page 192
What is the point of spam e-mail?......Page 194
Why the police should wear body cameras......Page 196
Why tech giants are laying their own undersea cables......Page 198
Game theory: sport and leisure......Page 200
Why tennis players grunt......Page 201
Why board games are so popular in Nigeria......Page 203
How drones can keep beaches safe from sharks......Page 205
How football transfers work......Page 207
How St Louis became America’s chess capital......Page 209
What does “digitally remastering” a film really mean?......Page 211
How bookmakers deal with winning customers......Page 213
The world’s highest-earning football clubs......Page 215
Speaking my language: words and wisdom......Page 218
Why emoji have beneficial linguistic side-effects......Page 219
How the letters of the alphabet got their names......Page 221
Why Papua New Guinea has so many languages......Page 223
Is Serbo-Croatian one language or four?......Page 225
How language is bound up with national identity......Page 227
How machines learned to process human language......Page 230
Why the World Bank needs to cut down on the word “and”......Page 232
The French argument over a new punctuation mark......Page 234
Seasonal selection: festivals and holidays demystified......Page 236
Where new year’s resolutions come from......Page 237
How St Patrick’s Day celebrations went global......Page 239
Why Easter moves around so much......Page 241
Why Europeans slack off in August......Page 243
How Thanksgiving became a secular holiday......Page 245
How weather, religion and daylight hours affect Christmas music consumption......Page 247
How Christmas, once a raucous carnival, was domesticated......Page 249
Contributors......Page 251
Index......Page 252