Examines the scientific aspects of keeping soldiers healthy, awake, uninfected, and sane in the often bizarre and extreme conditions of war, following the author on her explorations of different military circumstances--from taking part in a US Marine Corps Paintball Team drill to study the effects of hearing loss on the battlefield, to staying up all night with a crew tending missiles on the nuclear submarine USS "Tennessee."

Second skin : what to wear to war -- Boom box : automotive safety for people who drive on bombs -- Fighting by ear : the conundrum of military noise -- Below the belt : the cruelest shot of all -- It could get weird : a salute to genital transplants -- Carnage under fire : how do combat medics cope? -- Sweating bullets : the war on heat -- Leaky SEALs : diarrhea as a threat to national security -- The maggot paradox : flies on the battlefield, for better and worse -- What doesn't kill you will make you reek : a brief history of stink bombs -- Old chum : how to make and test shark repellent -- That sinking feeling : when things go wrong under the sea -- Up and under : a submarine tries to sleep -- Feedback from the fallen : how the dead help the living stay that way.