BOOKS: Bonk, Mary Roach (2008)

Yet another marvelous journey into the offbeat corners of scientific research from Roach.

The subject this time is "the curious coupling of science and sex." The expected names appear -- Kinsey, Masters & Johnson -- but we also learn about Marie Bonaparte (the great-grand-niece of Napoleon), who decided that the key to female orgasm was the distance between the clitoris and the vagina, and had her own clitoris surgically moved to increase her sexual pleasure; Ahmed Shafik, the most prominent sex researcher in Egypt; and the Danish farmers who have been instructed to masturbate their sows to orgasm before inseminating them.

As always, one of Roach's great strengths is her sense of humor, which greatly lightens (or sometimes takes great advantage of) the "eeeww" factor. Talking about the natural expandability of the scrotum, she notes:

There are images on the Internet of men with scrotums the size of those inflatable hop-along balls of my youth, but this strays well beyond normal expandability. These men have elephantiasis, and if you know what's good for you, you will not do a Google search of "scrotum" and "elephantiasis."

But there is a serious point to be made. Sex researchers don't have an easy job; their work is viewed with distaste; it's difficult to find human subjects; and they themselves are often seen as perverts, hiding their voyeuristic tendencies under the cover of science. It's a marvel that we know as much about sex as we do, given all of those attitudes, and the researchers who've made those discoveries have done their part to increase the amount of happiness in the world.

I was mildly disappointed in Roach's last book, Spook, about scientific exploration of the supernatural; the gap between science and psychic phenomena is simply too large to make for interesting reading, and Roach's own justifiable skepticism tinged the book in an unfortunate way. But this is a solid return to form; while you may have a few queasy moments, Roach will get you through them with grace and charm.