Will Holding in a Fart Make You Explode? Quirky Questions and Intriguing Answers for Teens

Your own farts never seem quite as bad as everyone else's, and there is a scientific reason for that. It is one of fifty odd questions answered here, each on a single page. Some are the stuff of playground rumour: whether cracking your knuckles does lasting damage, whether going out with wet hair can make you ill, whether brain freeze can actually hurt you. Others are stranger, such as how fish could possibly fall from the sky, or why one yawn sets off a whole room.

The tone is cheeky but the explanations are real, so each laugh comes with a little biology attached. The short, self-contained answers suit a teenager who would rather not sit through a textbook, and the book makes a good gift for curious boys, dads and brothers alike. The title question gets its answer too.