The Score: The Science of the Male Sex Drive

(Paperback)

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Description

Philadelphia Enquirer science writer, Faye Flam, examines how the desire to 'score' has profoundly shaped males over millions of years. Sweeping from the origin of the sexes to the sexual foibles of 21st century humans, Flam shows how a small difference in the size of the first sperm and eggs resulted in an evolutionary trade-off that has affected both males and females. Within this tug-of-war context, Flam explores a wide range of male behaviours and courtship strategies and ultimately reveals that males have been shaped by competing for the favours of the female sex.

Reviews

"Faye Flam knows exactly how to make sex scientific and how to make science sexy. She penetrates the mysteries of human and animal passion with great style."
-Matt Ridley, author of "Genome" and "The Red Queen"
"Faye Flam provides a fascinating tour of how the quest for sex has shaped the evolution of human and nature in all of its staggeringly delightful forms. Written with a deft touch and humorous hand, The Score is anchored in solid science of sexuality. It takes readers on a journey of insights that ranges from the tactics of pick-up artists to some surprising benefits of testosterone. Faye Flam has a genius for spanning different scientific disciplines, and bringing out the hidden gems contained in each. I couldn't put the book down."
-David M. Buss, author of "The Evolution of Desire"
"Offering a fascinating look at everything from transsexual snakes and the long corkscrew penises of ducks to club pickup techniques and the connection between male scum and scum that is male, Faye Flam ranges broadly over many disciplines to show how sexual strivings and strategies have shaped not only us, but virtually the whole animal kingdom. Whether you're interested in cads or cod, "The Score" will provide you with scores of compelling, often counterintuitive insights."
-John Allen Paulos, professor of mathematics at Temple University, and author of "Innumeracy and Irreligion"
"Faye Flam's fabulous new book reads like Sex in the City but pulls together the best scientific studies on human sexuality, explaining on so many levels just how driven we all are by these baser instincts, and how that makes an evolutionary explanation for sex so compelling. "The Score" isone sexy book written by one sexy woman. Read it and score yourself."
-Michael Shermer, publisher of "Skeptic" magazine, monthly columnist for "Scientific American," and author of "Why Darwin Matters" and "The Mind of the Market"
"Faye Flam is a very clever writer, smart and witty. She wears her scholarship lightly, stylishly, and with a wink. Men picking up this book hoping for tips on bedding women might at first be disappointed, but if they stick around they might learn the most important pick-up skill of all: To listen. After all, chances are sheas smarter than you, and more entertaining. Thereas no better proof of that than this book."
-Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down"

Author Bio

Faye Flam has been covering science for The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1995. In June 2005, she started writing "Carnal Knowledge", a weekly column about the science of sex. She has also written for New Scientist, Science, and The Economist, and her search for a good science story has taken her everywhere from the South Pole to Greenland to NASA's zero-g plane. A graduate of California Institute of Technology, Flam was recently a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan. She lives in Philadelphia.