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How long can I live on beer alone? Why do people have eyebrows? Has nature invented any wheels? Plus 99 other questions are answered in this book. Every year, readers send in thousands of questions to ''New Scientist'', the world's best-selling science weekly, in the hope that the answers to them will be given in the 'Last Word' column - regularly voted the most popular section of the magazine. ''Does Anything Eat Wasps?'' is a collection of the best that have appeared, including: why can't we eat green potatoes? Why do airliners suddenly plummet? Does a compass work in space? Why do all the local dogs howl at emergency sirens? How can a tree grow out of a chimney stack? Why do bruises go through a range of colours? And why is the sea blue inside caves? Many seemingly simple questions are actually very complex to answer. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. ''New Scientist's'' 'Last Word' celebrates all questions - the trivial, the idiosyncratic, the baffling and the strange. This selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

From the Publisher: In the fifth and most recent book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the last chapter, titled ''The Second War Begins,'' started: 'In a brief statement Friday night, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned to this country and is active once more. ''It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive among us again,'' said Fudge.' Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil. The author has already said that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And most importantly, the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been brewing in J.K. Rowling's mind for 13 years.

In the fifth and most recent book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the last chapter, titled ''The Second War Begins,'' started: 'In a brief statement Friday night, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned to this country and is active once more. ''It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive among us again,'' said Fudge.' Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil. The author has already said that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And most importantly, the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been brewing in J.K. Rowling's mind for 13 years.

'My life is a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.' Russell Brand is a comedian, journalist, TV and radio presenter and actor. He has won numerous awards including Time Out's Comedian of the Year, Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards, Best TV Performer at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, Most Stylish Man at GQ's Men of the Year Awards and the Sun's Shagger of the Year.

He describes his childhood and adolescence and the emergence of the adrenalin junkie, the first ridiculous stunts on his tricycle, and an increasing and near obsessive attraction to speed and the smell of petrol. He finds an attractive girl, Mindy, who shares his interests and helps him organise his high-speed life. For such a lively and intelligent communicator TV beckons and he becomes one of the daredevil trio, with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, who make such an enormous world-wide success of the revamped BBC TV programme Top Gear. He describes the personalities, the camaraderie and the stunts with which they entertain their weekly audiences until the day of his 300 mph crash that took Top Gear off the air and plunged a nation into mourning. The day of the crash, his rescue and the flight to hospital in a coma are described and then Mindy recounts the anxious waiting until he finally emerges from his coma - to immediately pull out all his life support equipment - and Richard then pieces together the stages of recovery as his shattered mind slowly reforms. We learn exactly what happened to him and the milestones in his slow recovery to full health.The final chapter recounts the return to Top Gear and the screening of the events of that fateful day.

Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of symbology, receives an urgent late-night call while in Paris: the curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and further. The curator, part of a secret society named the Priory of Sion, may have sacrificed his life to keep secret the location of a vastly important religious relic hidden for centuries. It appears that the clandestine Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect Opus Dei has now made its move. Unless Landon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, the Priory's secret - and a stunning historical truth - will be lost forever. With global sales of over 40 million, Da Vinci code continues to enthral readers around the World

''Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?'' is the latest compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of ''New Scientist'', the world's best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of ''Does Anything eat Wasps?'' - the Christmas 2005 surprise bestseller - this new collection includes recent answers never before published in book form, and also old favourites from the column's early days. Yet again, many seemingly simple questions turn out to have complex answers. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. ''New Scientist's'' 'Last Word' is regularly voted the magazine's most popular section as it celebrates all questions - the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This new selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.