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Mary Roach Quotes

Seriously hairy shit was going down on a regular basis.

Mary Roach

Seriously hairy shit was going down on a regular basis.

Tags: astronauts, early astronauts, mercury missions, nasa, space cowboys, space science

Instead, I quietly excused myself and went to the bar, to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.

Mary Roach

Instead, I quietly excused myself and went to the bar, to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.

About Author
Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published seven New York Times bestsellers: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016), and Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021).

It’s possible that the reason I've never experienced a ghostly presence is that my temporal lobes aren't wired for it. It could well be that the main difference between skeptics (Susan Blackmore notwi...

Mary Roach

It’s possible that the reason I've never experienced a ghostly presence is that my temporal lobes aren't wired for it. It could well be that the main difference between skeptics (Susan Blackmore notwi...

Tags: ghosts, hallucinations, science

…he was doing a breath hydrogen test. If you know the amount of hydrogen someone is exhaling orally, it's a simple matter to extrapolate the amount they're exhaling rectally. This is because a fixed p...

Mary Roach

…he was doing a breath hydrogen test. If you know the amount of hydrogen someone is exhaling orally, it's a simple matter to extrapolate the amount they're exhaling rectally. This is because a fixed p...

Tags: blood, colon, extrapolate, flatulence, gas, gulp, hydrogen, mary roach

Pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that's what humans like, and we assume our pets like what we like. We're wrong.

Mary Roach

Pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that's what humans like, and we assume our pets like what we like. We're wrong.

Tags: assume, like, variety

I don't know the ultimate fate of a suppressed fart.

Mary Roach

I don't know the ultimate fate of a suppressed fart.

Tags: farting, flatulence, gas, poot

Silletti and I, for instance, chewed out cotton wads for the same amount of time. I produced .78 milliliters of stimulated saliva; she produced 1.4. She tried to reassure me. It doesn't say anything a...

Mary Roach

Silletti and I, for instance, chewed out cotton wads for the same amount of time. I produced .78 milliliters of stimulated saliva; she produced 1.4. She tried to reassure me. It doesn't say anything a...

Tags: erika silletti, popular science, saliva

With the rise of classical Greece, the soul debate evolved into the more familiar heart-versus-brain, the liver having been demoted to an accessory role. We are fortunate that this is so, for we would...

Mary Roach

With the rise of classical Greece, the soul debate evolved into the more familiar heart-versus-brain, the liver having been demoted to an accessory role. We are fortunate that this is so, for we would...

Tags: humor, liver, science, soul

In my experience, the most staunchly held views are based on ignorance or accepted dogma, not carefully considered accumulations of facts. The more you expose the intricacies and realtities of the sit...

Mary Roach

In my experience, the most staunchly held views are based on ignorance or accepted dogma, not carefully considered accumulations of facts. The more you expose the intricacies and realtities of the sit...

Tags: facts, science, spook

The simplest strategy for bouts of noxious flatus is to not care. Or perhaps to take advantage of a gastroenterologist I know: get a dog. (To blame.)

Mary Roach

The simplest strategy for bouts of noxious flatus is to not care. Or perhaps to take advantage of a gastroenterologist I know: get a dog. (To blame.)

Tags: flatulence, humor, science

Compressed into boxes, packed in sawdust,... trussed up in sacks, roped up like hams...

Mary Roach

Compressed into boxes, packed in sawdust,... trussed up in sacks, roped up like hams...

Tags: cadavers, dead, dead people

Weightlessness is like heroin, or how I imagine heroin must be. You try it once, and when it's over, all you can think about is how much you want to do it again. But apparently the thrill wears off.

Mary Roach

Weightlessness is like heroin, or how I imagine heroin must be. You try it once, and when it's over, all you can think about is how much you want to do it again. But apparently the thrill wears off.

Tags: funny, humor, mary roach, sci fi, science, space

I am not, by trade or character, a spotlight operator. I’m the goober with a flashlight, stumbling into corners and crannies, not looking for anything specific but knowing when I’ve found it. Courage

Mary Roach

I am not, by trade or character, a spotlight operator. I’m the goober with a flashlight, stumbling into corners and crannies, not looking for anything specific but knowing when I’ve found it. Courage

US government button specifications run to twenty-two pages. This fact on its own yields a sense of what it is like to design garments for the Army.

Mary Roach

US government button specifications run to twenty-two pages. This fact on its own yields a sense of what it is like to design garments for the Army.

Tags: humour, mary roach, military, science

We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.

Mary Roach

We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.

Tags: death, life, mary roach, science

Masters points out that the heterosexuals were at a disadvantage, as they do not benefit from what he called gender empathy. Doing unto your partner as you would do unto yourself only works well when...

Mary Roach

Masters points out that the heterosexuals were at a disadvantage, as they do not benefit from what he called gender empathy. Doing unto your partner as you would do unto yourself only works well when...

Tags: heterosexual, homosexual, sex, sexuality

What sort of person experimentally infests a child with maggots? A confident sort, certainly. A maverick. Someone comfortable with the unpretty facts of biology. Someone who is perhaps himself an unpr...

Mary Roach

What sort of person experimentally infests a child with maggots? A confident sort, certainly. A maverick. Someone comfortable with the unpretty facts of biology. Someone who is perhaps himself an unpr...

Tags: mary roach, science

I've always been a bit of a space geek. I wrote an article years ago about the neutral buoyancy tank, which is this biblically sized pool where they train astronauts. And it was just the coolest thing...

Mary Roach

I've always been a bit of a space geek. I wrote an article years ago about the neutral buoyancy tank, which is this biblically sized pool where they train astronauts. And it was just the coolest thing...

Tags: train, years, where

Anything perceived as a threat trips the amygdala—the brain’s hand-wringing sentry—to set in motion the biochemical cascade known as the fight-or-flight response. Bruce Siddle, who consults in this ar...

Mary Roach

Anything perceived as a threat trips the amygdala—the brain’s hand-wringing sentry—to set in motion the biochemical cascade known as the fight-or-flight response. Bruce Siddle, who consults in this ar...

NASA didn't invent Tang, but their Gemini and Apollo astronauts made it famous. (Kraft Foods invented it, in 1957.) NASA still uses Tang, despite periodic bouts of bad publicity. In 2006, terrorists m...

Mary Roach

NASA didn't invent Tang, but their Gemini and Apollo astronauts made it famous. (Kraft Foods invented it, in 1957.) NASA still uses Tang, despite periodic bouts of bad publicity. In 2006, terrorists m...