GRUNT: The Curious Science of Humans at War

Much of military science is preoccupied with the study of violence, the development of strategy, of weapons, of warfare. But on a daily basis, soldiers also fight more esoteric battles against less considered adversaries. In GRUNT: The Curious Science of Humans at War, America’s favorite science writer, Mary Roach, explores those aspects of war that no one makes movies about—not the killing but the keeping alive. GRUNT salutes the scientists and surgeons running along in the wake of combat. In GRUNT, the heroes engage in highly unorthodox thinking; like Navy flight surgeon Angus Rupert, who flew blindfolded and upside down to test a vibrating suit designed to help pilots fly by feel should they become blinded or disoriented, and Captain Herschel Flowers of the Army Medical Research Laboratory, who injected himself with cobra venom to test the possibility of building immunity.

Mary Roach is the New York Times best-selling author of STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, SPOOK: Science Tackles the Afterlife, BONK: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, PACKING FOR MARS: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and GULP: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.