How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do [Hardcover]

Sharon Moalem (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Why do we need sex? Looking back into our evolutionary past, Dr. Sharon Moalem explores the ways in which the struggle to survive and create healthy offspring has determined - and continues to influence - our sexuality. Beginning with the sexual practices of various animals and plants, Dr. Moalem traces the evolution of sex across species and time periods to discuss its current role in human societies. From the finely tuned structure and function of human sex organs, to the developmental mysteries of having both male and female sexes, to the peculiar biology of sexual attraction, this new book presents a series of strange and fascinating discoveries about the human mating game.Dr. Moalem's research also examines recent discoveries related to contraception, pregnancy, sexuality, and sterility. Dr. Moalem's unique evolutionary perspective offers readers a new understanding of the creative roles that culture, biology, and time have all played in shaping our wonderfully varied and complicated sexuality. In answering these and many other questions, he provides an entertaining, comprehensive history that goes far beyond our classic 'birds and bees' understanding of sex. This is a book that challenges common perceptions about our bodies with astonishing discoveries from the very frontiers of evolutionary science.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Birds do it, bees do it, but why do humans do it? In this wide-ranging look at the evolutionary reasons for sex, physiologist and evolutionary biologist Moalem says that it's all about shuffling the gene pool and getting rid of any unwelcome guests, such as viruses, that may have latched onto human DNA. But why is one particular person attracted to another? Moalem relays the latest research showing that smell plays a very important role in attraction, and that even our genes may influence one's smell, and thus a person's desirability, to others. Scientists have found that women tend to be attracted to different types of men at different points in their ovulation cycles (dark and handsome hunks at their height; sensitive, care-giving types at other times). Moalem (Survival of the Sickest) whizzes through his discussion of homosexuality, neglecting angles that would have added to the book, but readers will find thought-provoking material in his chapter on differences in sexual anatomy and on how chromosomes and body parts aren't always what we expect them to be. Moalem writes fluidly for the general reader, and when he necessarily goes into graphic detail, he does it gracefully. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Have you ever wondered HOW SEX WORKS? This book answers all of the questions you’ve ever wanted to know about how your body works sexually, but did not know where to find the answers. They are here!” (Dr. Beverly Whipple, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller The G Spot: And Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality and The Science of Orgasm. )

“Sharon Moalem’s new book goes far beyond the typical ‘birds and bees’ sex talk. The neurogeneticist delves deep into human sexuality, and comes to some surprising conclusions.” (Daily Beast )

“Moalem makes evolution sexy and sex astonishing. If you’ve ever been surprised by either your body or your heart, this book will probably tell you why.” (Kinney Zalesne, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes )

“An engaging synthesis of scientific research on why we humans experience our sexuality the way we do.” (Rachel P. Maines, PhD, Cornell University and author of The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction )

“Packed with trivia about the evolutionary history, intricate mechanics, and nitty-gritty mysteries of sex, sexual organs, and desire, Sharon Moalem’s How Sex Works manages to inject science writing with the prurient thrill of a gossip rag.” (O magazine )

“Read this book and discover sex again, but from a scientific perspective, and see why it evolved. It’s almost as much fun, and needs less energy.” (Peter Macinnis, science writer and author of 100 Discoveries: The Greatest Breakthroughs in History and Mr Darwin's Incredible Shrinking World )

“HOW SEX WORKS is a must-buy for anyone interested in the ins and outs of why, psychologically and biologically, sex is about much, much more than the mere birds and bees.” (Nancy Redd, New York Times bestselling author of Body Drama )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061479659
• ISBN-13: 978-0061479656
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a book that tells me everything..., May 11, 2009

By 

arc (thornhill, ontario, canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do (Hardcover)

Most books on sex focus on either the titillating or the medical - on relationships or the nasty little details of STI's. Moalem's book not only discusses both, but also manages to connect the medical and the psychological. I don't think anyone has quite done this since Desmond Morris wrote The Naked Ape. I found myself picking this book up frequently - no matter where I started reading, there was something compelling. Especially the chapter on homosexuality - who knew that this might be triggered by the same gene that causes women to like men - in other words, the gene that promotes heterosexuality in females? And the wide range of sexual behaviours in animals - that male big horn sheep culture is predominantly gay?? A lot of this is not fundamental knowledge, but it sure makes for interesting, fun reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Evolutionary Explanation for All the Fun, February 5, 2010

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do (Hardcover)

Sex fascinates us; it makes or breaks marriages, ruins political careers, and is the backbone of the internet entertainment industry. And yet it is something hidden, as if we were ashamed at its fascination. In my work, I always ask people who come to see me what they do for fun. Of thousands of replies to this question over the years, I have had exactly one person list sex. Surely there are a lot more people than that who find sex something to do for fun. And besides being fun, sex is interesting. It is one of those universal activities that you can never learn everything about or participate in all its variants. There are many enthusiastic guides about how to have sex (the best of them is _The Guide to Getting It On!_), but if you are more interested in why we have sex and why people do the sexual things they do (including yourself), you are bound to gain insight from _How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do_ (Harper) by Dr. Sharon Moalem. The author is a neurogeneticist, evolutionary biologist, and physiologist, but he is used to writing for a popular audience, and this book gives lots of facts, from trivial to essential, about a topic that is always interesting. If you had a good sex ed. class (bet you didn't), many of the subjects in Moalem's book may be familiar, but there is new research in many aspects of sex and new ways of understanding its evolutionary importance, and Moalem has incorporated much of it in a readable and amusing fashion.

Sex is pretty costly, and that isn't just because of the price of dinner and a movie. It takes energy, and putting two half-cells together to make a new starter cell for a new individual is enormously complicated and can go wrong in countless ways. On the plus side, it jumbles the genes every generation, which not only makes it hard for parasites and viruses to ride along, but also allows variation in every new individual, enabling evolution to make its changes. Jumbling the genes may be something we are programmed to do. Moalem reviews studies that show how olfactory and visual cues may help us have the best chance of sending good DNA to our progeny. There are also studies to show how sex works internally. The more attracted a woman was to her partner, for instance, the easier and more intense were her orgasms; good orgasms produce more of the hormone oxytocin, which is thought to increase bonding. It's a nice positive feedback system, and indicates how essential good sex is to a good relationship. It would be a sorry sex book that didn't have pages on penis size. Guys, it's time to relax: although only 55% of you are happy with the size of your penis, 85% of women were quite satisfied with their partner's penis size (and though Moalem doesn't say so, some of the remaining 15% must have had dissatisfaction with too big, not too small). But size does matter: condoms have to fit, especially non-latex condoms, which don't have the stretch of the typical rubber. Moalem describes working for an agency in Thailand where western visitors to brothels reported that condoms were breaking. The problem was that local Thai condoms were smaller than those fit for men from the West.

There are controversies even in science about the dimly-lit biology of coitus. Moalem agrees (despite some studies to the contrary) that there is a physiological G spot. The ancient Greeks and plenty of other observers have been telling us there is such a thing as female ejaculation, and Moalem cites modern experts who say it isn't just a myth, though perhaps not every woman can do it and no woman should feel she is missing something without it. Focusing in one chapter on homosexuality, he points out that it seems to be programmed into the behavior of literally hundreds of species, part of a bonding mechanism between social animals. There is research that in at least some cases in humans, there is a gene that directs women to like men, and thus have more children; the same gene in men can cause them to like men. It's not all that simple; there are studies to show that a baby's fetal environment might play a role, and then of course there's all that post-birth nurture stuff. Moalem is interested in how technology is helping us overcome medical problems of sexuality, but also mentions "teledildonics" which is sexual remote interaction through the internet. There is little moralizing here. Connected to his review of male circumcision (which might have originated as a health practice but certainly took on a life as its own, including wrongly being thought to reduce masturbation), Moalem is strongly condemnatory of female circumcision. That's not the typical tone of his book, though, which in many chapters is a jaunty review of the most modern research on an old, old topic. Improved understanding can't hurt; one in five American high school girls, for instance, has no idea how HIV is transmitted. Moalem says that sex is one of evolution's greatest gifts; but so, too, is our intelligence to understand things scientifically. His book is an invitation to apply that intelligence in order to understand sex better, and what is strongly linked, to enjoy it more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with a satisfying blend of anecdotes, July 17, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do (Hardcover)

HOW SEX WORKS: WHY WE LOOK, SMELL, TASTE, FEEL, AND ACT THE WAY WE DO comes packed with a satisfying blend of anecdotes and insights into myths and scientific revolutions alike and provides a fine historical survey of medical research into sex. From how male virility is fueled by competition to why being in love encourages fidelity, chapters survey the excitement, idea and reality of sex in a lively manner perfect for both health and general-interest libraries.