Beakman's World

About this book

This is a book of biographies, fast facts and silly observations about famous scientist's lives. Each scientist has a two page biography/time line (except for Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, which share the same page). The book begins with a introduction as to what makes these scientists stand out, and builds up to the idea that the chronological order of the scientist help to build on each others work up until the television. A silly quote by Liza tells the reader "let's go wake up the dead and see why they're so famous now" (page 7). After each bio/time line, there is then a two page description of what they did and how they did it. Each biography starts with a photograph of one of the "Beakman's World" actors dressed as one of the famous scientists, (a still image from a television episode). There is a short information paragraph that tells; the day they were born, when they died, and why they were famous. A Time line of silly observations such as "No more star gazing for old Galileo," (page 13) on the year of his death. There are illustrations that help to explain the process of the research/experiment the scientist did, as well as other photographs of the cast in their usual television show costumes, usually with a silly or factual remark presented in a speech balloon. Fittingly the last invention that is covered in the book is the television. The illustrations of a virus attacking a cell (page 30), were also featured in the book/kit "Build With Beakman: Bacteria Farm" (page 5), however they appear to be redrawn. Unlike many of the other book…

Themes & subjects

About the author

Luann Colombo

Luann Colombo, is a science, and health expert who has a bachelor's degrees in both Biology, and Psychology, as well as a master's degree in Science Education. She attended the 'State University of New York College at Oswego' from 1974-1978. She has worked with such television programs as 'Bill Nye, the Science Guy', the PBS science series 'NOVA', as well as writing five books for 'Andrews and McMeel Publishing's 'Beakman's World' products. She was the Outreach Manager, for the Pacific Science Center science museum in Seattle Washington. She is co-owner of Teknos Inc. a company that designs and builds interactive science exhibits. She has also worked with the 'National Safety Associates', an…