Chapter 13 of Gulp goes into why legumes make you gassy, what you can do to help with this problem, and what Beano does to help with the digestion of beans.
Chapter 14 has a little bit more information about NASA, particularly in how they keep the air supply free of smells in spacesuits. There is also a little bit about the smell that is associated with the Devil that I enjoyed reading about.
Eating Backward, the title alone got me incredibly intrigued, more so than I think it should have, and it did not disappoint. All I could think of while reading this chapter is one specific episode of South Park where they do exactly this. While the episode is both hilarious and disgusting, scientifically it is not something that could actually happen for many reasons, all of which are described in detail.
In Chapter 16 I learned about Hirschsprung’s disease, a disorder of the colon that provides a possible explanation as to why Elvis died on the toilet. I learned a lot about death by toilet, which can happen not only from the above mentioned disease but from performing the Valsalva maneuver in an attempt to go while having a heart condition.
In the final chapter, we learn about bacteria transplants. Some people have bad bacteria in their colons, and they need better bacteria to make their lives less miserable. This chapter goes into where the beneficial bacteria come from and how they get them inside the person that needs them. It’s a little gross.
I would read this book again. In truth, I cannot wait to read this book again. It’s funny, well written, entertaining, and all the science stuff is explained really well (speaking as an individual who did not pursue the scientific arts). The chapters in this book all flow really nicely into each other. In fact, I cannot think of another book where the transitions are so harmonious. And, I only found one spelling error in the entire book, the word “herp” where I believe the word “help” was meant to be printed. This will not discourage me from picking up another one of Mary Roach’s books, which I hope to purchase in the near future.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 