A rotting corpse is a perfect gift

Robin McKie rounds up the best science books of 2004 at The Guardian:

Tired of your usual New Year’s good resolutions? Given up hope of ever losing weight, of cutting down on booze or giving up ciggies? Then try this little list of ‘must dos’: swim in a bioluminescent bay; walk on lava; extract your own DNA at home; visit Hiroshima; stroke a tiger; read On the Origin of Species; see the aurora borealis; visit an impact crater; or drive through Death Valley.

All are culled from the pages of 100 Things to Do Before You Die (Profile £3.99), a tiny guide to scientific exotica that has been put together by an illustrious assembly of researchers and public figures, including John Sulston, father of Britain’s human genome project, Susan Greenfield and Adam Hart-Davis, with each providing a few paragraphs of witty text to accompany each entry.

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