Just the title can make you wonder: "Nasty, Brutish and Short: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Animal Sex and Other Weird Behavior."
Do you really want to know about this? Stuff like fish farts and worm grunts and weevil genitalia?
You know you do, say the people behind the CBC Radio show "Quirks and Quarks." The weekly science program carries interviews with all kinds of scientists in all kinds of fields, and they know that stories about weird animal sex and the like get more response than any other topics.
"Each time we do one of these interviews, we come out of the studio smiling and shaking our heads in wonder," host Bob McDonald writes in the introduction.
So they decided to put about 100 of the best tales into a book written by former producer Pat Senson.
It's a quick, conversational read, even if it does lose a little in the translation from radio to print. And Senson can't avoid occasional lapses into a snickering tone that stirs images of adolescents at summer camp.
But the science is there. Fun, fast interviews with researchers give you a glimpse of the people who irritate cobras and want to know why weevils mate so roughly.
So if the title interests you, it's a safe bet that the book will interest you, too.
