"In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in scienc..." — Mary Roach

People are surprisingly off put just by saliva, the substance that you carry around in your mouth. You swallow it. You have no objection to it. But then it leaves your body, and you're just revolted. So it - that - just that right there to me is a fascinating thing.

All the clothes in my closet are Oakland, California, clothes. You can't wear those anywhere else. The barometric pressure drops and then where are you?

If you could really guarantee that the money would be spent on something more worthwhile, I'd say, absolutely, scrap the space program, but it never works that way.

There are people who would love to spend their last ten years, or five years, or whatever it is, on the surface of Mars.