Part of the New Scientist series, this book investigates everything from what it's like to die, to exploding trousers and recycled urine.

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This book is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization.

Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science we're fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks!

Have you ever wondered if a severed head retains consciousness long enough to see what happened to it? Or whether your dog would run to fetch help, if you fell down a disused mineshaft? The chances are that someone, somewhere has conducted a scientific experiment to find out. This book covers some interesting experiments in biology and psychology.

From the author of What on Earth Happened?, a radical new look at the story of life on Earth. Which living things have had the greatest impacts on the planet, other life and people?

The 30th anniversary edition of the million copy international bestseller, with a new introduction from the author. As relevant and influential today as when it was first published, this classic exposition of evolutionary thought, widely hailed for its stylistic brilliance and deep scientific insights, stimulated whole new areas of research.

Presents a mix of games, puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers, and riddles. This book mingles these with forays into ancient and modern mathematical thought, mathematical jokes, and inquiries into the great mathematical challenges.

Takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection.

Explains the science of noetics and how this exciting field of research is set to change the way we view the world forever. This book provides answers to universal questions by unveiling persuasive empirical evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena - from telepathy and clairvoyance to jinxes and prayer.

Selected and introduced by Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a rich and vibrant anthology celebrating the finest writing by scientists for a wider audience - revealing that the best scientists have displayed as much imagination and skill with the pen as they have in the laboratory.

Barnes Wallis is best known as the 'boffin' behind the famous bouncing bomb used by 617 Squadron to breach the Ruhr dams in 1943, but his work covers a far wider canvas. This book describes the huge breadth of Wallis' work, showing how he brought totally new ideas into these various fields.

Includes finding such as: How does your surname influence your life? What does the way you walk reveal about your personality? Why should women have men write their personal ads? And what is the funniest joke in the world?

In Mad Science Reto Schneider tells the extraordinary tales of 100 of the more unusual experiments conducted across seven centuries of science. These are stories that are often bizarre, sometimes mind-boggling - occasionally stomach-churning - but always diverting, informative and enlightening.

Offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. This book demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?

Following the phenomenal success of Does Anything Eat Wasps? and the even more spectacularly successful Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? , this collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers.

The story of a man's obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey -- from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.

In an age when science is supposed to be king, scientists are beset by experimental results they simply cannot explain. But, if the past is anything to go by, these anomalies contain the seeds of future scientific revolutions. This title surveys the outer-limits of human knowledge.

Water is the building block of all civilisation but what happens when we reach the peak - i.e. when our demand for water exceeds the rate at which it can be replenished? Water is our most precious resource. Former BBC journalist Alexander Bell innovatively explores how the control of fresh water has built and allowed civilisation to grow.

Revealing the actual possibilities of perpetual motion, force fields, invisibility, ray guns, anti-gravity and anti-matter, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots and cyborgs, time travel, zero-point energy, and extraterrestrial life, this title shows how few of these ideas actually violate the laws of physics.

From ancient Babylon to the last great unsolved problems, Ian Stewart brings us his definitive history of mathematics. In his famous straightforward style, Professor Stewart explains each major development - from the first number systems to chaos theory - and considers how each affected society and changed everyday life forever.