Loading ...I am becoming Mary Roach’s biggest fan. After sailing through Stiff, I am now reading Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
I haven’t finished it yet, but I am enjoying it so much that I had to take a moment from my reading to post praise for Roach. I am currently in the chapter about the weight of a soul and the turn of the century experiments by Dr. Macdougall that revealed to the world the weight of the human soul — 21 grams, or, less romantically .75 ounces. Well, if I am honest, it is more accurately the weight of the souls of four dying consumptives. Or rather the soul of one dying consumptive. None of the others quite matched the startling soul weight of the first.
Roach approaches anyone who has information on the subject. Including one fellow named Carpenter who went Macdougall one further. He measures not only soul weights (in “Macs” after in honor of our dying consumptive weighing pioneer) but also calculates the volume of the human soul. According to Carpenter, everyone’s soul is about the same weight and volume. Except for Jesus. As Roach put it [Jesus's] Mac had a volume of 5.25 quarts, meaning that half a quart of excess soul stuck out of his body when he was born. Carpenter surmises the protruding material took the form of a glow, rather than the more pedestrian hump or goiter that leapt into my mind.
As entertaining as fat baby Jesus’ extra soul weight was, the following interview with Gerry Nahum, a Duke University gynecologist with a degree in quantum physics was so much more entertaining to me. Nahum considers Macdougalls’ experiments “silly”. And he completely dismisses Carpenter who isn’t even a proper scientist. In fact, his book on soul volumes can only be found on line. And he doesn’t have any degrees. And he also measures the volume of Leprechaun souls.
Nahum, however, is interested in the topic of the mass which may be converted to energy (none of which may be created or destroyed) when someone, or something, dies.
About her interview with Nahum, Roach starts off by saying
When you are as brainy as Gerry Nahum is, you lose sight of just how ignorant the rest of us are. Earlier in our talk, he prefaced the line “Quite a few people look at microtubules as what can beconsidered almost like an abacus for molecular calculation at a subcellular level” with the phrase “As I’m sure you’re aware.”
But geek that I am, the passage that had me rolling on the floor was the following:
We sit there quietly for a minute, allowing the guest to absorb this rather dense helping of quantum theory. In a corner of the ceiling, a fluorescent light flickers and goes out. Applying the first law of Thermodynamics, we know that elsewhere in the universe, an unattractive though cost-efficient glow has just appeared.
I still have more than half the book to go. And I’m going to finish this post to get back to reading it.
I know that my posts have become a cheering section for Ms. Roach, but I make no apologies. At least this book ties in the metaphysical slant from which Noumenal originally sprang, full grown from the head of Che like some modern day Athena. And it adds some depth which my incessant posts about comic books and Lois Lane sorely lack.
I encourage you to read one of these books. I’ve already forced Mojo to start reading Stiff and so far, he is enjoying it as much as I did. Next is her book about the scientific study of sex. That should also be a joy.
Gotta get back to reading.
Buy me a beer!
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…elsewhere in the universe, an unattractive though cost-efficient glow has just appeared.
Thats hilarious.
Normally, reading semi-academic books sets my face set in a grimace of concentration, often teetering on boredom. Ms Roach, however, has made cadavers more interesting than I ever thought possible, though I admit a certain preexisting morbid curiosity towards that subject area. While Richard and I have quickly become Mary Roach fanboys, I’d like to think that I have maintained some amount of objectivity in stating that her work is well worth the time invested!
i think you’re preaching to the choir, mojo. i’ve long had stiff on my wishlist, and added her other two as soon as amazon recommended them. i didn’t find any of them in half-price books this weekend or i’d have snagged them.
and i’m definitely with you on the “preexisting morbid curiosity” count. her book would have to go in my current “of forensics and ded fings” section.
Why is it that 90% of the books in the discount bins are not the books I want?!
Oh. Right.
that 10% makes it worth it. ’cause, sometimes, “ooooo!”