Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary CanalThe irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside. “America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists—who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts.Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies. |
Avis des internautes - Rédiger un commentaire
Avis des utilisateurs
5 étoiles |
| ||
4 étoiles |
| ||
3 étoiles |
| ||
2 étoiles |
| ||
1 étoile |
|
LibraryThing Review
Avis d'utilisateur - nancynova - LibraryThingAll of what previous readers have said and more! Interesting parts on Mary researching her subject and conversing with the researchers about their studies Consulter l'avis complet
LibraryThing Review
Avis d'utilisateur - kaida46 - LibraryThingGulp by Mary Roach (4 stars) Gulp, Adventures Down the Alimentary canal- I’ve not been disappointed by the science books written by this author, Stiff, Spook, Packing for Mars…She is one curious ... Consulter l'avis complet
Table des matières
Introduction | 13 |
Tasting has little to do with taste | 23 |
Yourpet is not likeyou | 41 |
Why we eat what we eat and despise the rest | 61 |
Can thorough chewing lower the national debt? | 79 |
The acid relationship of William Beaumont andAlexis St Martin | 93 |
Someone ought to bottle the stuff | 107 |
Life at the oralprocessing lab | 131 |
Can the eaten eat back? | 167 |
The science ofeatingyourselfto death | 185 |
Fun with hydrogen | 223 |
Does noxiousflatus do more | 243 |
Is the digestive tract | 269 |
and other ruminations on death by constipation | 289 |
We can cureyou but theres | 311 |
Acknowledgments | 329 |