‘And Then You’re Dead’ by Cody Cassidy and Paul Doherty

Happy Monday, everyone. Let's start this week off on a positive note, shall we?

And Then You're Dead: What Really Happens If You Get Swallowed by a Whale, Are Shot from a Cannon, or Go Barreling over Niagara is a gleefully morbid new book by physicist Paul Doherty and writer Cody Cassidy about all the most outlandish, cartoonish, and impossible ways people can die.

From the author duo's recent Reddit AMA:

We looked into questions like what would happen if you swam out of a deep sea submarine, were swallowed by a whale (surprisingly possible), your elevator cable broke (don’t jump. It won’t help), if it’s even possible to die from magnetism (it is, yay!), if sticking your hand in the CERN particle accelerator is lethal (probably) and many more.

I mean, this book really answers all the important questions:

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?

[…]

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.

And Then You're Dead isn't for the faint of heart. I wouldn't hand it to a kid to read, even if they love weird facts; the descriptions are just a bit too gruesome for that. If you're into the concept though, you can get the book in these formats:

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