She is an original who can enliven any subject with wit, keen reporting and a sly intelligence. The text is littered with footnotes: tangential but delicious tidbits that Roach clearly couldn't bear to leave out. She goes to school to learn to be a medium, subjects her brain to electromagnetic waves to see if they induce the experience of seeing ghosts and joins a group trying to record sounds made by the spirits of the Donner party.

She ranges into the oddest nooks and crannies of both science and belief (and scientists who believe), regaling the reader with tales of Duncan Macdougall, a respected surgeon who weighed consumptives at their moment of death to see if the escaping soul could be measured in ounces, and of female mediums who, during séances, extruded a substance called ectoplasm from their private parts (she even examines a piece of alleged ectoplasm archived at Cambridge University). Roach perfectly balances her skepticism and her boundless curiosity with a sincere desire to know. Yet she has done it again: after her study of what becomes of our mortal coil after death, she now presents an equally smart, quirky, hilarious look at whether there is a soul that survives our physical demise. In her other books, such as Bonk (2008) and Stiff (2003), Roach takes a scientific approach to the subjects of sex and the life of cadavers, respectively.

From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASAs new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.Roach made an exceptional debut two years ago with Stiff- Summary Book Summary Join 'America's funniest science writer' (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. Spook (2005) by Mary Roach is a detailed investigation into cultural attitudes toward the idea of the afterlife. As Mary Roach discovers, its possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you cant walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

Spook by mary roach summary