People don't appreciate their intestines until something goes wrong. But I always hope that people gain a little appreciation for their guts.
Ultimately the problem is that sex is perceived as a personal intimate thing not in the realm of science. But that's not true. It's physiology; it's anatomy. It deserves to be studied.
Meteorite hunting is not for wimps. The best places to look are also the coldest and windiest. You need very old ice and you need wind lots of it strong and unrelenting. Antarctica fits the bill.
My books are not really books; they're endless chains of distraction shoved inside a cover. Many of them begin at the search box of Pub Med an Internet database of medical journal articles.
My books are not really books; theyre endless chains of distraction shoved inside a cover. Many of them begin at the search box of Pub Med an Internet database of medical journal articles.
Astronauts are like these mythic legends but really they are just regular people people who wear chinos.
The suffix 'naut' comes from the Greek and Latin words for ships and sailing. Astronaut suggests 'a sailor in space.' Chimponaut suggests 'a chimpanzee in sailor pants'.
Every mode of travel has its signature mental aberration.
Pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that's what humans like and we assume our pets like what we like. We're wrong.
Wisdom comes with age but keep it to yourself.
A fine book in the perfect setting when there's all the time in the world to read it: Life holds greater joys but none come to mind just now.
Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead they will say. Ah but there is.
Softball is the reason Washing Machines and Bleach are so popular. Don't think so? Just ask a softball Mom.
Bodily fluids and solids are universally the most disgusting things we as human beings can come upon but as long as they are inside us it's part of you.
A space station is a rangy monstrosity a giant erector set built by a madman.
LOL is rarely OL or even really L. A real out-loud laugh - not the forced social variety which is closer to barking than laughing - is uncommon among adults.
Instead I quietly excused myself and went to the bar to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.
The broader the topic the easier it is not only to fill a book but to set the bar pretty high for really great stuff.
The Internet is a boon for hypochondriacs like me.
Editors are more concerned with the first chapters of a book; that's what everyone reads first in the bookstore or in the online sample.
Death. It doesn't have to be boring.
Normally I object to strangers beaming force fields into my brain.
I write with a sense of my future readers being ever on the verge of setting down the book and pronouncing it a bore. Fear and insecurity are great motivators.
I'm always imposing my taste in books on others. I hope that people enjoy being surprised by a book they might not otherwise read - I enjoy the surprise myself when others do this to me.
I began thinking about my skeleton this solid beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.
I don't know of many people who've done sex research with an eye toward people saying sex is bad for you except for the promiscuity and cervical cancer link - which is actually a valid discovery.
Hormones are nature's three bottles of beer.
All the clothes in my closet are Oakland California clothes. You can't wear those anywhere else. The barometric pressure drops and then where are you?
Literally thousands of e-mails over the course of a book go out to people I've never met people who might end up being the focus of a chapter.
You are a person and then you cease to be a person and a cadaver takes your place.
If you get a colonoscopy you should really insist they give you no drugs - then you do get to see what it's like to swim through your own intestines.
I've been writing full-time since about 1984 - mostly magazine features and columns.
It is interesting to come across people who feel that a ghost communicating via a spell-checker is less far-fetched than a software glitch.
I have a nice little office with a nice little window in it but I do basically spend huge amounts of time in what you could consider solitary confinement.
If I couldn't use food or love to define contentment I would use reading.
In 'Packing for Mars ' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science.
Gravitation is the lust of the cosmos.
In my whole life I've never vomited from seeing something disgusting. Does it really even happen outside of movies and TV? I believe it may be a myth.
Gravity disappears again and we rise up off the floor like spooks from a grave. It's like the Rapture in here every thirty seconds.
I don't write on topics that require a lot of urgency. But in 'Stiff ' I wanted to change people's hearts about organ donation. Whenever I get a chance I try to talk about that.
I dont fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness decrepitude pain debilitation depression senility. After a few years of those I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.
It's this mood these sentiments - the excitement of exploration and the surprises and delights of travel to foreign locales - that I hope to inspire with this book.
The writing is always the easy part provided I can get the good material. It's the getting of the good material that's a challenge.
Space doesn't just encompass the sublime and the ridiculous. It erases the line between.
I believe that not everything we humans encounter in our lives can be neatly and convincingly tucked away inside the orderly cabinetry of science.
When someone tells me 'Oh we have so many problems on Earth; space exploration costs too much money ' I say 'I absolutely agree with you. But I still hope we do it.'
I would have sold my wife and children into slavery for a ride into space.
I'm drawn to the taboos that surround the human body. I find it fascinating that we are repelled by many of the acts and processes that keep us alive.
There are people who would love to spend their last ten years or five years or whatever it is on the surface of Mars.
To me NASA is kind of the magical kingdom. I was sort of a geek and you go there and there are just these wondrously strange things and people.
If you could really guarantee that the money would be spent on something more worthwhile I'd say absolutely scrap the space program but it never works that way.
All of my books tend to be about things going on in labs that you wouldn't really expect.
All good research-whether for science or for a book-is a form of obsession.
Sexual desire is a state not unlike hunger.
It is the mind that speaks a woman's heart not the vaginal walls.
Science is you! It's your head it's your dog it's your iPhone - it's the world. How do you see that as boring? If it's boring it's because you're learning it from a textbook.
I'm one of those goobers who comes out of the polling place actually wearing the 'I VOTED' sticker on my jacket.
Worry lives a long way from rational thought."---Self
The simplest strategy for bouts of noxious flatus is to not care. Or perhaps to take advantage of a gastroenterologist I know: get a dog. (To blame.)
I spend a lot of my time on the phone pestering people. 'What's new in your lab? Can I come visit your lab? When can I come visit your lab?' I'm basically a professional pesterer.
For the scientists they're kind of puzzled and pleased that somebody finds their work interesting. It makes it fun for me. I feel like I've sort of turned over a stone that hasn't been turned over.
I'm not a quick wit. I'm only funny on paper. I mean I'm not totally humorless! It's just that in person I'm not quite the way I am on paper.
The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan.
People are vomiting unrealistically in movies and something must be done about it.