Karl Kruszelnicki (affectionately known as 'Dr Karl') is a vibrant voice (just about as vibrant as his shirts) promoting science with boundless energy and passion on radio and television, in newspapers and in his many books of popular science. His light touch and his irrepressible sense of humour make the facts that he delivers fun for all ages.

Throughout It Ain't Necessarily So… Bro , which is based on his popular newspaper column, "Mythconceptions", Dr Karl takes obvious delight in exploding urban myths such as that of "Auriculosaurus", the supposedly genetically engineered mouse with the human ear growing on its back. Kruszelnicki explains not only that the mouse was not genetically engineered, but also that the ear was not human. In fact, it was made of cow cartilage cells growing over a synthetic mesh scaffold moulded in the shape of an ear, with the mouse providing a supply of blood to nourish the cartilage. He goes on to educates us about the science involved: that the experiment was part of an effort to create replacement ears and similar body parts for people with injuries or congenital problems. Kruszelnicki adds interesting summaries of related subjects, including the problems with non-biological implants and the substances they're made of.

It Ain't Necessarily So… Bro is made up of 35 bite-sized chapters just like that one. The topics include some perennial myths — that no two snowflakes are identical; that fingerprint identification is infallible; and that cockroaches will be the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust — plus some newer ones, such as the mythconception that daddy long legs spiders are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs are too short to penetrate our skin.

And then there are two chapters about the much-maligned microwave oven.
Dr Karl is an expert at making science palatable.