A gleefully gruesome look at the actual science behind the most outlandish, cartoonish, and impossible deaths you can imagine What would happen if you took a swim outside a deep-sea submarine wearing only a swimsuit? How long could you last if you stood on the surface of the sun? How far could you actually get in digging a hole to China? Paul Doherty, senior staff scientist at San Francisco’s famed Exploratorium Museum, and writer Cody Cassidy explore the real science behind these and other fantastical scenarios, offering insights into physics, astronomy, anatomy, and more along the way. Is slipping on a banana peel as hazardous to your health as the cartoons imply? Answer: Yes. Banana peels ooze a gel that turns out to be extremely slippery. Your foot and body weight provide the pressure. The gel provides the humor (and resulting head trauma). Can you die by shaking someone’s hand? Answer: Yes. That’s because, due to atomic repulsion, you’ve never actually touched another person’s hand. If you could, the results would be as disastrous as a medium-sized hydrogen bomb. If you were Cookie Monster, just how many cookies could you actually eat in one sitting? Answer: Most stomachs can hold up to sixty cookies, or around four liters. If you eat or drink more than that, you’re approaching the point at which the cookies would break through the lesser curvature of your stomach, and then you’d better call an ambulance to Sesame Street.

The Education Service was a vital arm of the British Colonial Service while the British Council has been paramount in promoting the English language and culture overseas. But are both agents of British colonialism and neo-colonialism? Or are both simply altruistic purveyors of language and culture to a wider world? Verner Bickley as an Education Officer in the British Colonial Service and in the British Council provides the answer and shows that educational and cultural values were paramount and important in themselves, and through the medium of the near-global English language, vitally important in both culture and technical training. Life in overseas postings was set against a backdrop of turbulent international relations following World War II, including service in the Royal Navy in India and Ceylon, soon to be become independent Sri Lanka. Bickley was Education Officer in Singapore during the tumultuous 1950s, at the time of the Malayan 'Emergency' and in the lead-up to independence in 1957 which he announced on Radio Malaya. His service with the British Council began with a posting to Burma during the premiership of U Nu, struggling with ethnic problems and to be ousted by military coup. And during his time in Indonesia the British Embassy was burnt to the ground by rioters. Later service was in Japan - basking in its success as an emerging economic powerhouse. This is an essentially warm and human story enlivened, especially during the British Council period, by a succession of diverse personalities, including royalty, British and Thai, as well as writers like Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene and Willis Hall and actors such as Donald Sinden, Patrick Stewart and Max Adrian.

In "Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour," Charles Edward Dixon, who is well-known for his exacting observations of the natural world, deftly combines his scientific fiction worldview with his abiding passion for the natural world. Being a renowned naturalist and ornithologist, Dixon's literary skills go far beyond the confines of conventional animal research, taking readers into undiscovered realms of the imaginative and speculative. Dixon, who is renowned for his unmatched commitment to careful observation, uses the same meticulous attention to detail in "Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour" as he did in earlier ornithological writings. His narrative progresses at a speed that parallels the amazing swiftness of his bird subjects, all thanks to his acute observation of the subtleties found in the natural world. Dixon's ability to move fluidly between factual and hypothetical elements is demonstrated in "Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour," demonstrating that his writing talents are not limited to conventional genres. Readers are encouraged to soar with Dixon on this literary trip as he explores the infinite wonders of nature and his own limitless imagination as a world-class biologist turned science fiction storyteller.