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Mary Roach answers 10 questions about the science of sex here

YOU are so lucky to be married to me, I tell my husband. I remind him of this often. He gives me that all-too-familiar cornered beagle look: where is she going with this? I wave around Mary Roach鈥檚 new book, , describing her success in persuading her husband to have sex in a laboratory while researchers took ultrasound images. For those of you that are interested, her description appears on page 125: 鈥淓d keeps up an idle, disaffected rhythm.鈥�

My point, I tell my husband, is that I鈥檝e never asked him to 鈥減erform鈥� for one of my books. It makes no difference, he says, the beagle look replaced by a look of mulish stubbornness 鈥� he wouldn鈥檛 do it anyway. 鈥淣ot even if it would make the book a best-seller?鈥� I ask with indignation. Not even, he replies. I tell him that I鈥檝e changed my mind about the luck angle 鈥� Ms Roach is clearly the fortunate one, to be married to Ed. 鈥淢y husband,鈥� she writes, 鈥渄eserves a medal.鈥�

Indeed he does. Any book about the science of sexual relations inevitably encroaches on personal relations. One of the more charming parts of the book 鈥� and it is often charming 鈥� is the enjoyment of the improbable, shared by the Roach duo as Mary pursues her research. That鈥檚 not to say that Bonk is merely an exploration of her marriage. But the relationship sets the cheerful tone as the book explores the field of sex research, ricocheting through its history, its highlights and its low points.

I should confess here that Roach鈥檚 approach 鈥� honed in her earlier books Stiff (cadaver science) and Spook (supernatural studies) 鈥� reminds me of a classic pinball machine at play. Ping! A joke. Ping! A bit of scientific trivia. Ping! Another joke. Mostly this formula works, as the book whizzes from early sex researchers like to , the medical physicist at University College London who ran the above mentioned ultrasound sex-imaging study. Deng bounced sound waves off the pertinent body parts with the speed and precision of a gamer on a roll, engaging the copulating couple in small talk all the while.

鈥淪ound waves were bounced off the copulating couple鈥�

Is the book all bells and whistles? Mostly. But I鈥檓 a big admirer of 鈥渟ubversive education鈥� in science writing 鈥� the ability of a writer to seduce the reader into a really good story, one that鈥檚 so entertaining that you don鈥檛 realise you鈥檙e actually learning a lot about science. Roach does that very well. Tucked between the jokes and anecdotes, you will find lessons on impotence, orgasm, unusual and unusually brave scientists, and the sexual behaviour of other species, including a hilarious description of porcupine sex.

Occasionally, though, Roach鈥檚 desire to be really funny or really clever derails the story. In the midst of describing a study of sexual responses, for example, she decides to compare it to a quiz show; the kind in which 鈥渁 disembodied voice might ask them, for $500, to name Millard Fillmore鈥檚 vice-presidential running mate鈥�. I could be persuaded, possibly, that this is a good place to reference a rather obscure 19th-century American president 鈥� but not that it was then necessary to then ramble on about how Fillmore didn鈥檛 actually run at all 鈥� he succeeded a dying president. This digression is just another of Roach鈥檚 jokey asides, one of a number that has absolutely nothing to do with sex.

This is the kind of predictable stumble that comes with any stand-up, rapid-fire comedy act. Sometimes the comedian tries too hard, and sometimes the audience gets impatient. Mostly though, they both have a good time. Bonk is a light-hearted cabaret act of a book by a writer who genuinely seems to be enjoying herself 鈥� in more ways than one. Ping!

If you have a burning question about the science of sex that you would like Mary Roach to answer, please email it to bonk@newscientist.com by Thursday 1 May 2008. A selection of the best questions will be answered and will appear on newscientist.com on Tuesday 13 May.