Secrets from the Sex Lab

by Dutton, Judy

• ISBN13: 9780767930291
• ISBN10: 0767930290
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-08-10
• Publisher: Harmony

Summary

"Secrets from the Sex Lab" takes readers into the simmering world of sex researchers who have been documenting the many esoteric aspects of the erotic realm for years. With this book the laboratory door is finally open to them.

Author Biography

JUDY DUTTON has been a staff editor and writer for Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Redbook, and Maxim, among other publications. Her previous books include Redbook's 500 Sex Tips: How to Make Sex More Exciting, Satisfying & Fun and Red Hot Touch: A Head-to-Toe Handbook for Mind-blowing Orgasms (as Julie Jeffries). She lives in Brooklyn, New York.


From the Hardcover edition.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: The Surprising Truth About Science and Sex	p. xi
Why We Have Sex (Do You Really Need to Ask?)	p. 1
The Laws, Bylaws, and Loopholes of Attraction	p. 23
A Field Guide to Flirting	p. 79
So . . . Want to Have Sex?	p. 111
This Is Your Body on Sex	p. 127
This Is Your Brain on Sex	p. 181
Whipped Cream, High Heels, and a Dog (and You Thought Your Fantasies Were Weird!)	p. 205
The Wild World of Kinky Sex	p. 219
The Cheat Sheet	p. 239
Prescription for Perfect Sex?	p. 269
All About Orgasms	p. 285
First Comes Love, Then Comes . . . a Baby? How Conception Really Happens	p. 321
Conclusion: Where Will the Science of Sex Take Us Next?	p. 331
Notes	p. 335
References	p. 361
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

I N T R O D U C T I O N

The Surprising Truth About Science and Sex

Tim and Sally are a baffling couple. Tim loves sailing. Sally can’t swim. Sally loves musicals. Tim would rather gnaw his own hand off than sit throughHairspray. Sally swore she’d never date a guy who watches sports. Every weekend, Tim plants himself in front of ESPN in their home in Hoboken, New Jersey, with a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Sally never drinks beer. Ever.

“We always joke that we would never have met on a dating Web site like Match.com because we’re such polar opposites,” says Tim. So what prompted Tim to propose to Sally last year?

And why did Sally accept?

For one, the sex is fantastic–and they swear they both knew it would be from the moment they met. Tim and Sally first worked at the same publishing company. Tim was in ad sales; Sally in public relations. The minute they first bumped into each other at the coffee machine, Tim started teasing Sally about using skim milk rather than creamer in her coffee. “It definitely wasn’t love at first sight,” Sally says. “At first, I didn’t even like Tim that much.” And yet, every single molecule in Sally’s body clearly disagreed with her mind. Whenever Tim came within ten feet of her, her breathing would get shallow, her mouth dry, her hands sweaty. Not that the sensation was unpleasant. On the contrary, it felt a lot like those moments in high school right before she’d step on stage to perform a role in a play–nerve-wracking but exhilarating, as if something amazing were about to happen. Could that something amazing be Tim? She decided to find out.

Sally began “bumping into” Tim regularly at the coffee machine, timing her trips for when she knew Tim would be there. Conversations over coffee morphed into lunch outings, then dinner. “Is this a work date or a date date?” Tim asked at the end of one evening with a grin. “Because if it’s the latter, don’t worry, I won’t sue for sexual harassment.” Then Tim leaned over the plate of calamari they’d been sharing and kissed her. He knew Sally wasn’t his type. Plus, the fact that they worked together was far from ideal. Still, for some unexplainable reason, he’d been wondering what it would be like to kiss Sally ever since she’d first frowned at his creamer remark by the coffee machine. As he’d hoped, kissing Sally felt great. It felt right.

After that night, Tim and Sally started officially dating. Soon, they discovered that while they didn’t see eye to eye on everything, they got along fantastically well in bed. Their health profiles also complemented each other in uncanny ways. Sally has excellent eyesight. Tim’s vision is terrible. Sally has high cholesterol. Tim’s cholesterol levels are low. Sally has never had a cavity. Tim’s teeth are soft and prone to them. “I always thought stuff like that was weird with us,” Tim says. “Did our DNA somehow know that we could balance out each other’s weaknesses and create a healthy baby? I guess we’ll have to find out someday if my hunch is right.”

Given all that was conspiring against them–different interests, personalities, an awkward first encounter over coffee creamer–how did Sally and Tim end up together? Was it fate? Luck? Or was it because of a far less mysterious force called science? Applying the clinical precision of science to the messy arena of sexual passion might seem like a strange combination, but behind closed laboratory doors, scientists have been scrutinizing sex for centuries. You’re probably familiar with Alfred Kinsey, who rocked America’s perceptions of what people do in bed in the 1950s, but he is only one of hundreds of researchers who have examined sex and come to some star

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Excerpted from Secrets from the Sex Lab: From First Kiss to Last Gasp ... How You Can Be Better in Bed by Judy Dutton
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.