Please Explain 'What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking ... avoid opinion ... facts are your single clue. Get the facts!'— Time Enough for Love, Robert HeinleinDoes eating celery make you lighter? Do you have to be dying to have a near-death experience? Is a yawn a silent, natural scream for air; and if a little oxygen is good for you is more oxygen better? Can the humble spud kill? Did Galileo drop his balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Did a NASA computer really prove a miracle in the Bible actually happened? Is there any substance harder than diamond, and do diamonds really last forever? And exactly how many Eskimo words for 'snow' are there?Wherever he goes, people always ask Dr Karl to explain stuff, and in this his 26th book (26 is the only number directly between a square and a cube), he explains more myths and curly questions.Visit Dr Karl at www.drkarl.com

Great Mythconceptions 'Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one,' said Albert Einstein.Is the toilet seat cleaner than the office desk? Did Man really land on the Moon? Is the Black Box black? Does a soul weigh 21 grams at the time of human death? Did Einstein fail school? Why isn't a quantum leap huge? Do we really use only 10% of our brain? Did hydrogen seal the fate of the Hindenburg airship? Does a duck's quack echo? Is there really a truth serum? Is a camel's hump full of water? And is it really written in the stars?Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney. He appears on Triple J and other ABC radio stations, the BBC and is a regular on Channel 7's 'Sunrise' program. This is Dr Karl's 23rd (ooh that's a prime number) book, based on his popular column 'Mythconceptions'.

Gold, gold, gold for Australia's mega-selling scientist's 27th book... 'Nullius in verba', the Royal Society's motto, roughly translated, means 'take nobody's word for it'. Why not do the experiment for yourself and see the reality of nature. Don't trust authority - trust nature. Does cranberry juice cure urinary tract infections? Is the hookah really a safer way to smoke? Will the Large Hadron Collider destroy the Earth and the Universe? Is the purpose of the peacock's tail to attract females? And in the unlikely event of a plane crash, are some seats safer than others? the human hand has 27 bones; Uranus has 27 moons; 27 is a perfect cube, being 3 x 3 x 3; and in this, Dr Karl's 27th book, he takes us on another exploration of the dazzling world of science.