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Mary Roach
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Mary Roach is a columnist and popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...

 writer. Raised in Etna, New Hampshire
Etna, New Hampshire
Etna, originally named "Mill Village," is a small village within the town of Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. It is located in southwestern Grafton County, approximately east of Hanover's downtown and south of the village of Hanover Center, on Mink Brook...

, she holds a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

 and currently resides in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. To date, she has published four books: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a 2003 non-fiction work by Mary Roach. Published by W. W. Norton & Company, it details the unique scientific contributions of the deceased...

 (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife , published by W. W. Norton & Company, a non-fiction work by Mary Roach who also wrote Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, is a humorous scientific exploration as to whether there is a soul that survives death...

 (2005) (published in some markets as Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex was written by Mary Roach in 2008. The book follows the winding history of science and its exploration of human sexuality, going back as far as Aristotle and finally ending with recent discoveries about the origination and anatomy of the female orgasm...

 (2008) and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is a non-fiction work by science author Mary Roach, whose previous works include Stiff, Spook, and Bonk. Published in August 2010, Packing for Mars was recognized in "Amazon's Best Books" of that month, and quickly became a #6 New York...

 (2010).

Life and career

She began her writing career at the San Francisco Zoological Society, producing press releases on such topics as elephant wart surgery. In 1986, she sold a humor piece about the IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 to the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

. That led to a spate of humorous first-person essays for such publications as Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

, The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...

, Discover
Discover (magazine)
Discover is an American science magazine that publishes articles about science for a general audience. The monthly magazine was launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It was sold to Family Media, the owners of Health, in 1987. Walt Disney Company bought the magazine when Family Media went out of...

, Outside
Outside (magazine)
Outside is an American magazine focused on the outdoors. The first issue debuted in September 1977 with its mission statement declaring that the publication was "dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and hardware of the outdoors..."Its founders were...

, Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...

 (for whom she wrote a monthly humor column) and GQ.

Roach's work has a serious edge, as well. Her book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a 2003 non-fiction work by Mary Roach. Published by W. W. Norton & Company, it details the unique scientific contributions of the deceased...

, was selected for Washington State University
Washington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...

's Common Reading Program in 2008-09.

Roach appeared on The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

 on August 2, 2010 to discuss her newest book Packing for Mars
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is a non-fiction work by science author Mary Roach, whose previous works include Stiff, Spook, and Bonk. Published in August 2010, Packing for Mars was recognized in "Amazon's Best Books" of that month, and quickly became a #6 New York...

.

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