The Darwin Awards V
By (Author) Wendy Northcutt
Penguin Random House Australia
Penguin Random House Australia
27th October 2008
Australia
General
Non Fiction
True stories: general
081
Paperback
312
Width 130mm, Height 197mm, Spine 25mm
284g
An all-new collection of gene-pool belly flops Most people don't need a PhD to know that doing chin-ups off the edge of a seventh-floor balcony is a recipe for disaster. Or that it's a bad idea to put a paintball gun in your mouth and pull the trigger. Or to think twice before joyriding in a shopping cart strapped to a four-wheel drive. Darwin Award winners lack this basic sound judgement. Named for Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards celebrates those who have dived headfirst into the shallow end of the gene pool. From offering a bear a beer to self-testing a Taser to jumping a drawbridge on a bike, The Darwin Awards V- Next Evolution honours these macabre and entertaining feats of hapless misjudgement. Fully illustrated with over a hundred new awe-inspiring tales, including science essays from guest writers and answers to FAQs about evolution in action, The Darwin Awards V- Next Evolution demonstrates how uncommon common sense still is.
Wendy studied molecular biology at Berkeley, worked in a neuroscience research laboratory at Stanford, and later joined a biotech start-up developing treatments for cancer and diabetes. She wrote the Darwin Awards while waiting for her dastardly genetic manipulations to yield results. Eventually Wendy shrugged aside the labcoat in favour of an off-beat career. She now writes both code and prose for the Darwin Awards website. Much of her time is spent wishing she could catch up. In her free time, Wendy chases eclipses, dines, dances, and inhabits an increasingly eccentric wardrobe. Her interests include reading, cats, gardening, glass-blowing, natural dyework, fondling textiles, and observing human nature.