The popular-science magazine behind the runaway international bestsellers Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? and Does Anything Eat Wasps? takes on another irresistible batch of the strange, silly, and mind-boggling questions that plague curious minds the world over:

Can pigeons sweat, can fish get thirsty, and can insects get fat? Could a person commit the perfect murder by killing someone the day after receiving a full blood transfusion? Is there a way to beat the odds of the lottery by using math? How much mucus does a nose produce during the average cold? If forced to eat parts of yourself to survive, which non-vital organs would be the most nutritious? Culled from New Scientist’s popular “The Last Word” column and edited by Mick O’Hare, the author of How to Fossilize Your Hamster, Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is guaranteed to amuse and amaze as much as it informs.

(And if a polar bear appears to be lonely, it probably means there wasn’t enough walrus for dinner.)