Post 453: Bonk

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. ISBN: 9780393064643.

I was surprised that Bonk was focused on the perceptions people have of scientists who study sex and their methods. It seems Roach has gotten a little better over time with balancing crude humor, interesting facts, and no-less-interesting-but-not-quite-what-most-readers-are-looking-for research stuff.
But even people who have a remotely open interest in sex are sometimes seen as perverted. For instance, I'm a big fan of sexual innuendo,* and while I have a healthy sex drive, those two things are correlations rather than directly related to each other. I may be able to make innuendo or sexual jokes more frequently than someone who doesn't think about sex as much, but having a low sex drive would not make me less interested in sexual research, humor, and other aspects of sexual behavior.

I almost feel like we should be more worried about people who don't have an interest in sex. I'm not talking about wanting to have sex, but the topic itself. As a biological function it is far more interesting than many of the other things our body does. It is a core of who we are as living beings, and the one thing we share with every living thing on the planet. Even mold spores have sex... kind of. Our bodies are geared towards it in a way that affects our higher brain function, and the equipment itself is pretty fascinating even outside of the actual erotic context.

Sex is one of the things that I think we can all agree on being a good thing, even if we don't agree on the particulars of when or how it is a good thing. And the beauty of it is, you don't even have to talk about sex between humans for it to be interesting. With all the different aspects of fertility, mating rituals, and physiology, people should be able to find something of interest that is also appropriate based on the situation. Maybe my openness about sex makes me a weirdo, or even a pervert, in the eyes of certain people, but at least I know the difference between a vagina and a vulva and don't have to ask my gynecologist what a cervix is.

Check out Kirkus Reviews, and from the blogger realm Fyrefly's Book Blog and The Book Lady's Blog do a wonderful job at reviewing Bonk.
LibsNote: Bought from Capitol Book and News from personal (and very limited) funds.
*This morning I had a dry throat and the first thing that came to mind was, "If you had a French boyfriend, having a frog in your throat would have a completely different meaning." Yes, I am a dirty old man at heart.

Day 195: Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.  ISBN: 9780393068474.

So, I think the main thing this book taught me is how much I freakin' love gravity. It makes most bodily functions easier and cleaner.  It also prevents me from becoming a spinning ball of misery and vomit.

In space, no one can hear you scream, because you're more likely to be horking your lungs out.  People apparently get motion sickness without gravity because our brains are designed to find up and down, which is no doubt useful on a planet, but space does not give a damn about your silly "up and down" notions.

I'm not one to get sick very easily, but I somehow doubt my stomach is any stronger than those of people who routinely ride something called a vomit comet.  I've been on boats, airplanes, and tiny prop planes before, but you can easily fix the motion sickness by getting to a place where you can see the horizon.  Motion sickness stems from your inner ear telling you that you're moving, while your eyes are telling you a much different story.  In space, your inner ear is constantly trying to reorient itself and figure out where the hell you are.  You do apparently get used to it eventually, but in the meantime...lots and lots of puking, and usually with almost no warning.

So not only are there likely to be floating turds, but you can expected unexpected astro-yak in the mix.  Thankfully even puking in your space suit has been accounted for.  This is awesome, because of all the ways I don't want to die, drowning in my own vomit is somewhere near the top of the list.  On the other hand, it means having your space spew blown down into your suit.  It's away from your face...but...yeah.

Once again, I think I'll leave space exploration to the professionals.  In the meantime, me and Walt will hang out in the cryochambers and be sent up later when things aren't so messy.

A good review can be found over at one of my favorite book blogs, eclectic/eccentric.

Day 194: Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.  ISBN: 9780393068474.

First off, I'm going to recommend that anyone disgusted by bodily functions not read the posts about this particular title.  Roach more or less tells us everything we wanted to know about how astronauts do things in space, even though we don't really want to know.  For the 12-year-olds in my audience, keep reading.

Oh my god, I don't want to go to space anymore.  As cool and amazing as it would be to fly in a soup can and be able to look down on the earth, I now fully appreciate the joys of pooping with the aid of gravity.  I am very much in awe of the scientists who were both willing and able to figure out the problems of dropping loads waste management in zero gravity.  And unfortunately not all of the problems have really been solved.

Apparently floating runaway poop is a very, very common occurrence.  Imagine: you're just kicking back watching the earth speed away from you and wondering at how amazing it is, only to have a hard flash-frozen floater bump you like a small, friendly brown dolphin.  I don't know about you, but I'm flailing in "ick factor" right now.

So, not only does gravity help keep poop in it's place, but it also helps tell you when it needs to go there.  Without gravity you are prone to soiling yourself and actually have to plan trips to the bathroom, regardless of whether or not your body is telling you to go.  Apparently in zero gravity, even the fluids inside you bounce around, oh god, pooponauts are using your colon as their own private space shuttle.  Roach actually inserts bits of NASA transcripts and in one there's an exchange between two astronauts where "poop time" is scheduled, as in one of our heroes of space turns to the other and says, 'Dave, I'd like to take a crap sometime.'  Ah, the glamorous life of an astronaut.

I'm not going to give you the details of actually pinching loaves in space, but let's say it involves far more work than I'm willing to put into it and being far more intimate with fecal matter than I ever want to be.  I'll let the other guys fly to space, but if they ever figure out artificial gravity, and need a good librarian, I'll be happy to take a job at the International Lunar Library and Archives.  Just don't ask me to shit like an astronaut.

 A good review can be found over at one of my favorite book blogs, eclectic/eccentric.

As a bonus, I created this work for Better Book Titles, which is an often hilarious and amazing blog if you have a basic knowledge of literature.