Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

 In a bit of irony, I read a Mary Roach book I could potentially read in the quiet car when I'm working from home. Roach's speciality is the absurd side of science, but the framework of Grunt, warfare, tones down the giggles. Gulp discussed intestinal distress; Grunt features a sniper who's experienced diarrhea while on a mission. The life and death implications lead to a more subdued tone. Roach still focuses on the absurd, but approaches the subtopics slightly more clinically.

That's not to say there's no room for humor. The chapter on heat stress (deadly and underestimated) features a series of endurance experiments undergone by Mary and a young Marine and conducted by a medical officer...who happens to be the Marine's mother...and who embarrasses him by "momming" him in front of his colleagues. The chapter on clothing (which must be durable, stain resistant, flame retardant, warm in cold environments and cool in hot environments - and cheap) starts with a scientist throwing condiments at swatches. And of course, the chapter on stink bombs (featuring a custom made stink called Who Me?) has plenty of gross-out humor. 

But there's no humor in battlefield simulations where amputee actors strap on fake wounds an bags of simulated blood so field medics can practice with special effects artillery exploding around them. Or in the surgical science of penile reconstruction. Noise and sleep deprivation threaten soldiers' and sailors's ability to function, and the "push through it" attitude most have doesn't help.

With less humor, I focused on how much of this research will, as emergency medicine did, eventually reach the civilian world. Using maggots to debride wounds already has (I did my Medical Devices paper on leeches on the incorrect assumption that the photos in the medical articles would be less gross than those related to maggots). The stakes are lower for us, but dealing with background sounds and circadian rhythm disruptors could make life easier and more pleasant for everyone as well as cutting down on automobile and industrial accidents. As someone who leans pacifistic, I'm not comfortable with military matters but Grunt was, like all of Roach's books, fascinating and enlightening.