Gulp : adventures on the alimentary canal / Mary Roach.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roach, Mary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Digestive organs--Popular works.

Digestive organs.

Alimentary canal--Popular works.

Alimentary canal.

Gastrointestinal system--Popular works.

Gastrointestinal system.

Genre:

Popular works.

Physical Description:

348 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Adventures on the alimentary canal

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2013]

Summary:

Few of us realize what strange wet miracles of science operate inside us after every meal. In her trademark style, Mary Roach investigates the beginning, and end, of our food, addressing such questions as why crunchy food is so appealing, how much we can eat before our stomachs burst, and whether constipation killed Elvis.

Contents:

Nose job: tasting has little to do with taste

I'll have the putrescine: your pet is not like you

Liver and opinions: why we eat what we eat and despise the rest

The longest meal: can thorough chewing lower the national debt?

Hard to stomach: the acid relationship of William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin

Spit gets a polish: someone ought to bottle the stuff

A bolus of cherries: life at the oral processing lab

Big gulp: how to survive being swallowed alive

Dinner's revenge: can the eaten eat back?

Stuffed: the science of eating yourself to death

Up theirs: the alimentary canal as criminal accomplice

Inflammable you: fun with hydrogen and methane

Dead man's bloat: and other diverting tales from the history of flatulence research

Smelling a rat: does noxious flatus do more than clear a room?

Eating backward: is the digestive tract a two-way street?

I'm all stopped up: Elvis Presley's megacolon, and other ruminations on death by constipation

The ick factor: we can cure you, but there's just one thing.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780393081572

0393081575

OCLC:

811599508