bonk the curious coupling of science and se

Ahmed Shafik dressed lab rats in polyester pants. Shafik won my heart by publishing a paper in European Urology in which he investigated the effects of polyester on sexual activity. He owns a Cairo hospital and lives in a mansion with marble walls. His glasses are the thick, black rectangular style of the Nasser era. Ahmed Shafik wears three-piece suits with gold watch fobs and a diamond stick pin in the lapel. The Strange, Brave Career of Ahmed Shafikĭr. 'The 1920s were almost like the '60s in a way - and then we swung back to a more conservative era.' 'There were sex manuals at the time that were encouraging women to try being on top,' Roach says. During that era, the aforementioned Dickenson, a Brooklyn-based gynecologist, became the first to take a laboratory-based approach to examining what happens physiologically when people have sex. Roach says the 1920s were a surprisingly racy decade for sex research. Shafik's conclusion? Rodents in leisure suits don't get much play. In a conversation with Robert Siegel, Roach describes the evolution of sex research: from studies by Alfred Kinsey and the lesser-known Robert Latou Dickenson, to the Egyptian doctor Ahmed Shafik, who dressed rats in polyester pants.

Her previous works include Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, on the science of death, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, a look at what happens after we die. That is just one of the many curious findings Mary Roach writes about in her new book, Bonk: The Curious Couple of Science and Sex, which examines the history of research on copulation. Eliminating polyester from your wardrobe may be a smart move if you're looking to attract a mate.

Bonk the curious coupling of science and se