DanRiskin

A baby.

If you were a Nephilengys spider, I'd totally rip off my own genitals for you!

I was working as a scientist in a basement, when the phone rang. A production company was doing a show about evolution (called Evolve, for the History Channel), and they needed "an evolutionary biologist who is not an old man." They'd gotten my name from someone who had seen me give talks at conferences. So the take-home for me is that my enthusiasm as a researcher drew me smoothly into being enthusiastic about science for a living on TV. A lot of it was luck, but I believe that you can totally get any dream job if you just try to be the person who deserves that job.

It wasn't a practical joke, but one of our craziest days at Daily Planet was when we had someone in the studio burning magnesium and he'd kind of eyeballed the amount and it ended up being way too much and suddenly everything was brighter than the sun and the cement floor had permanent craters in it. Also, our camera guy, Art, had to get new shoes because his were burnt. Good times.

Brain-eating Amoebas. Naegleria fowleri. Screw that. You wipe out while water skiing, get water up your nose, and die two days later? That's just unfair.