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11m 26s
With Bonk, best-selling author Mary Roach turns her insatiably curious eye toward one of the most elusive subjects in science: sex. She asks both outrageous and practical questions (Would you have a testicle transplant?
Centuries of scientific research into human sexuality has involved great minds, good intentions and ghastly experiments — and yet our desire to demystify sex and solve all our sexual problems remains unsatisfied.
From the useful to the absurd, Mary Roach’s Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex highlights the ways science can shed light on human sexuality. She investigates what a pig’s orgasms might teach us about fertility and asks questions about the practice of grafting tissue from monkey testicles onto humans to improve male virility. With these examinations and more, Roach gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into how sex researchers do their work.
Roach makes clear from the start that the pairing of science with sex is limited, acknowledging that there’s so much about sex that science will never be able to explain. After all, sex involves a unique mix of hormones, emotions, and passions that no lab could ever capture exactly. And yet, as she shows in this New York Times bestseller, scientists haven’t stopped trying.
Download the Athena app to access our expertly crafted "Bonk!" insight in text and audiobook formats.
Featured in the 'Better Sex' Collection
