From the inside flap:
“Grunt tackles the science behind some of a
soldier’s most challenging adversaries─panic, exhaustion, heat, noise─and
introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges
hostile fire with the US Marine corps Paintball Team as part of a study on
hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio
of US Army Natick Labes and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a
repurposed movie studio where ampoutee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics
for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, in east
Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. The author
samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink
bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear
submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other
book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown
like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a
tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the
same way again.”
Review
Roach’s Grunt, like her other books, is an entertaining,
informative and often witty read, one that may change the way you view human
nature, as well as the science behind government-funded experiments, and how
scientists and military personnel apply the results of those experiments. Favorite chapters: “Old Chum”; “That Sinking Feeling”
and “Up and Under.” This
is an excellent nonfiction book, one worth owning.
No comments:
Post a Comment