The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, How Satellite Imagery of Penguin Poop Is Leading to Advanced Animal Monitoring and our BookBrowse Review of The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

These are original discussion questions written by BookBrowse.

1. Which was your favorite one of York's examples of "silly science," and why?
2. Do you agree with former US Senator Proxmire, the creator of the Golden Fleece Awards, that there needs to be more scrutiny on the types of projects funded with public dollars? If so, what did you think of the Awards as a tactic for increasing that scrutiny?
3. Do you think York successfully defended the need for curiosity-driven scientific research? Which parts of her argument did you find the most compelling?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Basic Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.