A quirky tale infused with wit and wisdom Witch mania grips an idyllic English town in 1683 when five young girls accuse an old woman of witchcraft. A feisty fifteen-year-old girl and her righteous friend try to save the woman from the gallows. Their fight entraps them in a triangle of science, sorcery and superstition and turns into a journey of discovery of the ages-old conflict between reason and religion. This unique mix of fiction and history of science is presented in thirteen chapters: Casting the Circle; Raven; Cat; Broomstick; Demons; Wand; Blood; Bells; Knot; Imps; Coven; Sword;...

At 7.14 a.m. on June 30, 1908 a huge fireball exploded in the Siberian sky. A thousand times the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, it flattened an area of remote Tunguska forest bigger than metropolitan New York, forming a mushroom cloud that almost reached into space. What was it? A wayward black hole, a crashing comet, an rogue asteroid, an exotic rock of antimatter or mirror matter, a methane gas blast from below, an alien spacecraft, a laser beam fired by extraterrestrials, or an early experiment in nuclear physics which got out of hand? A century on, this grand dame of science...

This book promises not to drown you in an endless stream of trivial or meaningless numbers or ways of calculating them. Instead, it presents odds of numerous events happening as engaging stories that are short, sharp and simple - and, above all, relevant to everyday life. Stories are not only packed with up-to-date and thoroughly researched information, they also present intriguing insights into the topics discussed. Though quirky at times, they strive to inform and entertain even if they cannot always turn odds in your favour. Surendra Verma is a journalist and author based in Melbourne,...