杏吧原创

EVER wanted to use scientific know-how to boost your Scrabble score, perfect a magic trick or get the best price for your second-hand stuff on eBay?Brain Trust promises to show you how to do all this and more.

In the book, author Garth Sundem draws on his own interviews with highly respected scientists to deliver short and snappy tips on a huge range of subjects 鈥� from using psychology research to boost your chances of success while speed dating to applying an understanding of physics to learn how to throw a knockout punch.

There certainly are some interesting facts among the hotchpotch. For example, there鈥檚 the study that shows you can lose weight by eating practically whatever you like, as long as it鈥檚 within an 8-hour window of the day. And I鈥檒l definitely be trying out Sundem鈥檚 tips on how to get my boyfriend to do more housework. Many of the studies in this book will likely be familiar to New 杏吧原创 readers, though. And the brevity of each tip means that the science behind the ideas isn鈥檛 explored in much depth.

I鈥檓 not sure how life-changing many suggestions really are, either. For example, Sundem鈥檚 tip for hanging on to your car is to buy one in an undesirable colour 鈥� of all the cars stolen in one Dutch study, he tells us, none were pink.

鈥淭he tip for hanging on to your car is to buy one in an undesirable colour 鈥� no one steals pink cars鈥�

All in all, the book skims over some interesting topics in science, if you can get past Sundem鈥檚 grating language. I had to cringe every time he stopped to point out how 鈥渁wesome鈥�, 鈥渢otally cool鈥� or 鈥減retty frickin鈥� sweet鈥� the science is. Brain Trust may be a little too lightweight for most, but it can provide an interesting 鈥� and very enthusiastic 鈥� overview for younger readers.