For a cookbook, Apicius has a markedly gladiatorial style…

“Rawson points out that although snakes can’t taste, they have a primitive sense of smell. They’ll extend their tongue to gather volatile molecules and…

— Mary Roach

“Olive trees grow in the same climate and soil conditions as grapes. The olive oil people have been up in Napa Valley all along,…

— Mary Roach

Astronauts are like these mythic legends, but really, they are just regular people, people who wear chinos.

— Mary Roach

“Nirlungayuk reached a similar conclusion. I tracked him down, seventeen years later, and asked him what the outcome of his country-foods campaign had been.…

— Mary Roach

“* Kissing is a less aggressive form of bacterial transplant. Studies of three different gingivitis-causing bacteria have documented migration from spouse to spouse. Periodontically…

— Mary Roach

“panel applicants at the initial screening were asked not only to describe the cat foods but also to rate them according to how much…

— Mary Roach

Every now and then, someone will tell me that one of my books has made them laugh out loud. I never believe them because:…

— Mary Roach

Sharing a room with a cadaver is only mildly different from being in a room alone. They are the same sort of company as…

— Mary Roach

“Viagra isn't the only drug being prescribed off-label for women with arousal problems. Los Angeles urologist Jennifer Berman told me some doctors are prescribing…

— Mary Roach

“…he was doing a breath hydrogen test. If you know the amount of hydrogen someone is exhaling orally, it's a simple matter to extrapolate…

— Mary Roach

“If you look at survivable crashes, it’s rare that even half the emergency exits open,” says Shanahan. “Plus, there’s a lot of panic and…

— Mary Roach

To me, death is dark, pain, grief.

— Mary Roach

For the most part, if somebody approaches me and says, 'I'd like to interview you,' who am I to say no, when I spend…

— Mary Roach

“As the number of Inuit who hunt has dwindled, so has the consumption of organs (and other anatomy not available for purchase at the…

— Mary Roach

“A patient on the way to surgery travels at twice the speed of a patient on the way to the morgue. Gurneys that ferry…

— Mary Roach