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New guide for scientific explorers
By Simon Hooper for CNN
 |  Fancy swimming with great white sharks? "In spite of their reputation they don't even enjoy human flesh," says the new book. |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- If you've ever wrestled a grizzly bear while running naked to the South Pole, then you are probably hallucinating, quite possibly under the influence of dimethyl tryptamine, a mind-bending substance from the Brazilian Amazon.
On the other hand, you have perhaps been inspired by a new list detailing some of the most thrilling and thought-provoking adventures that science has to offer.
The list, compiled by the New Scientist magazine, includes all of the above activities, along with 97 other experiences and experiments guaranteed to broaden the scientific mind.
Already published in the UK, a U.S. edition entitled "Stroke a Martian and 99 Other Things to Do Before You Die" will follow in the New Year.
"You've only got one life, so make the most of it," the book urges.
"We basically felt science had loads to offer in terms of new experiences," says Valerie Jamieson, who edited the final list.
"We whittled down a list of about 400 ideas to a final 100, reducing it mainly to things you'll be able to do in your lifetime. Around 90 things on the list are things you can do now.
"They are all inspirational ideas, to make people think more about the world in which they live."
There's plenty for scientific tourists, including trips down the world's deepest mine in South Africa and to the top of Ecuador's Chimborazo volcano -- a mountain higher than Everest because of the equatorial bulge of the earth. You can also find tips on the best places to hunt for fossils, dinosaur footprints and meteorites or swim with great white sharks.
And if traveling to the edge of the earth's atmosphere at twice the speed of sound in a Russian MIG jet isn't quite enough to set your pulse racing, the book explains how you could turn yourself into a human particle detector. You can do this by taking a trip on SpaceShipOne -- the world's first commercial rocket plane, which is scheduled to begin flights into space in 2008.
But there is plenty to stimulate the mind as well as the senses, such as learning the endangered native American language of Choctaw, which has separate past tenses for things you know for certain to be true and for things you are merely repeating.
If that doesn't faze you, try deciphering the Voynich manuscript -- "an apparently medieval text written in an unknown script in a language" that has "baffled cryptologists for decades." Or perhaps earn $100,000 by discovering a 10 million-digit prime number.
Nor does the list shirk from asking the big questions. The next time you have a spare moment it suggests you consider the fact that the universe is at least 156 billion light years across and that nobody really has any idea of its true size.
Among some of the contributions from leading figures from the world of science and technology, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield ponders the question of consciousness and theoretical physicist Paul Davies wonders about the mysterious properties of the number 137.
"If I ever solve this problem, I'd like to emblazon my coffin with this number," writes Davies.
There is also plenty of fun to be had from simple home experiments such as weighing your own head in a bucket of water, using chocolate melted in a microwave to measure the speed of light or making ice cream with liquid nitrogen -- providing you have a ready supply from a local laboratory of course.
The book also explains why moving to Denmark could be the key to a life of happiness.
"It's the only industrialized nation where people are happier than they were 30 years ago," it says.
"These are big questions but it shows that science isn't just for intellectuals and that it can be fun, inspiring and thought-provoking. For instance a visit to Hiroshima really shows the dark side of technology," says Jamieson.
"Doing an experiment like extracting your own DNA is something people studying for biochemistry degrees get taught, but in actual fact anyone can do it."
And with this list, there is plenty you can still do even after you die. For a "glorious finale" it recommends arranging to have your cremated ashes launched into space.
"It's pretty hard to get into space while you're still alive but after you're dead there's nothing stopping you," says the book. "It's not exactly luxury travel ... but after a few years you will re-enter the atmosphere as a shooting star."
