The Author (Mary Roach)

Mary Roach is a writer and humorist, specializing in investigations of the scientific foundations into various aspects of day-to-day human existence. Prior to her work on Grunt, her previous work has focused on, among other things, the biology of human sexuality; the process of digestion; and the aftermath of death, in terms of what happens to human cadavers and of what might happen to the human spirit. Her work is generally marked by a trio of characteristics, all of which appear in Grunt. The first: an ability to clearly communicate scientific processes and insights in a way that readers without formal scientific education or understanding can comprehend. The second: a willingness to engage personally with the subjects she is studying – that is, being willing to participate herself in experimentation. The third: a capacity for sometimes unexpected, often humorous juxtapositions between ideas (such as, in...