Electrified Sheep

"It is perfect summertime reading - preferably with a friend nearby who can be constantly interrupted with unsettling facts."
~ Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

"There are chapters on experiments to test the effects of exposure to nuclear explosions, including a proposal to use an atom bomb to launch a space ship; on psychiatric experimenters, including two researchers who in 1938 sought to discover what Bryn Mawr co-eds talked about at night by hiding under their beds; and a chapter on the general lunacy of scientists who use themselves as guinea pigs, including a doctor who tried to remove his own appendix. While readers will often find Boese laugh out loud funny, they will also be left with a prickly feeling that all is not well on the frontiers, and certainly the fringes, of science."
~ Publishers Weekly

Electrified Sheep
Atomic Pigs, Glass-Eating Scientists,
and More Bizarre Experiments
Alex Boese

Benjamin Franklin was a pioneering scientist, leader of the Enlightenment and founding father of the USA. But perhaps less well known is that he was also the first person to use artificial respiration to revive an electric shock victim. Odder still, it was actually mouth-to-beak resuscitation on a hen that he himself had shocked.

Electrified Sheep tells the tales of some of the most weird and wonderful experiments ever conducted in the name of science. Packed full of eccentric characters, irrational obsessions and extreme experiments, it's the follow-up to the bestselling Elephants on Acid.

Watch as scientists attempt to nuke the moon. Wince at the doctor who performs a self-appendectomy. And catch the faint whiff of singed wool from an electrified sheep.

Currently available in the UK wherever books are sold:

Amazon • Waterstones • WH Smith • iTunes

U.S. publication anticipated, Spring 2012.