Mark Pilkington's column 'Far Out' appeared weekly in The Guardian's science supplement, for about two years. It charted some of the more curious byways, scenic detours and inspired failures of scientists, inventors and, yes, crackpots, over the past few hundred years. Here is a collection of those columns, revised and expanded. Written in a succinct readable style, each piece provides a useful, self-contained introduction to its topic, and contains enough information to allow readers to discover more if they so desire.