A SCOTTISH professor has decided to go out with a bang – by paying to have his ashes turned into a giant firework.

Professor Joe Goldblatt has already decided to donate his body to medical science.

But the Texan-born academic has decided to go a step further.

Mr Goldblatt, executive director of the International Centre for the Study of Planned Events, at Queen Margaret University, says he plans to turn his death into the "ultimate event".

He has organised to be cremated and placed in a 12-inch pyrotechnic shell and set off over Edinburgh.

The academic, originally from Dallas, has charged his two sons with the job of sending him out in style – as the final explosion in a funeral fireworks display. He said: "By being the last firework launched, people will be able to say there goes good old Joe one last time."