Customer Reviews

The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament

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The same qualities that make Sapolsky one of the most popular teachers at Stanford come through in his writing. Although I was an English major, I took his human behavioral biology class because the man has a well-deserved reputation for being entertaining and thought-provoking. If you attend one of his lectures, you'll find students from all disciplines, all wide-awake. Sapolsky makes the biology of the human condition come to life without compromising the integrity of its scientific underpinnings. This book is especially recommended to those with an interest in biology or psychology, but the appeal is universal.

People have said some fairly stupid things in the name of socio-biology, but Robert Sapolsky isn't one of them. This is a distinguished researcher who can write like a best-selling journalist; a man who can address such deeply fundamental human concerns as growing up, growing old, and finding a god, and illustrate them with examples from baboon behavior, while not seeming to trivialize the issue; a man with enough courage in his observations to extend them into realms where science has been forbidden to tread, yet with the honesty and modesty to always indicate where he is uncertain, and even to include a rebuttal to one of his essays. One of the reasons I read is to get a chance to 'meet' authors like this.

Stanford professor, Robert Sapolsky, not only knows how to make deep scientific research accessible to the general public, he also has a biting sense of humor. As a science text, Sapolsky does provide the mandatory data and research, loads of supplemental cross-references, and a standard objectivism necessary to his field. Beyond the 'givens,' though, are the wonderful puzzles he sets for us to explore. He does give us at least one of the answers to the puzzle, if not the only answer, and he makes that clear. But in true Penn and Teller fashion, he shows the behavior, then tells how it comes about, but then adds another puzzle unanswered to the previous answer -- exactly what science is about: one more question. His explorations of voyeurism and gossip (why DO we do it?), decision making between two evils, and even puberty are mesmerizing.

Robert Sapolsky has written a wonderful, fun and terribly informative book, and it's a lovely break to anyone who wants to put their endocrinology articles aside for a night and read something a little smoother. I loved "Curious George's Pharmacy" so much I devoted a day in my Great Apes syllabus to a discussion of pharmacognacy and assigned that chapter as a reading. I also quite enjoyed the last chapter on the "heterozygote's advantage" of schizotypal disorder as the root of major world religions (and read the bit about Martin Luther's clear obsessive-compulsive behaviors aloud to my husband in bed, where we both got a good gasp and a laugh). As an anthropologist and a student of primate endocrinology myself, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the biological basis of human behavior.

Robert Sapolsky does a really nice job of tackling complex subjects in an entertaining, thought provoking and accessible manner. The Trouble with Testosterone is a collection of essays covering a range of subjects more (or less) tied to behavioral biology - the study of the extent to which our behaviour is influenced by our bodies and our bodies by our behaviour.

M. Sapolsky's approach is thoughtful and addresses not only some of the really nifty developments in the field, but also some of the thorny philosophical issues arising from what we think we know (and what we thought we knew but didn't). Whether discussing the social interactions of aging baboons, the extent to which testosterone does not affect aggression, an important difference between 1/2 and (1/4 + 1/4), or the risks in deciding too readily what is normal, M. Sapolsky usually has something interesting to say, and for the most part says it well.

The Trouble with Testosterone is a keeper on my bookshelf.

When I bought this book I really didn't know what I was getting into. I really have enjoyed reading it and have learned new things I hadn't thought about before. Mr. Sapolsky managed to keep my attention to science through his humor and conversational style. It's a great read.

I was assigned to read this book for a physical anthropology class and I enjoyed it a lot. Sapolsky writes in the style of Stephan Jay Gould, connecting scientific abstracts to everyday life. I enjoyed reading it as it was rather lite material, but in some sense that was a problem with the text. Each chapter had one central point, and then a lot of extraneous words. So overall an interesting read, but not the best "popular" science I have ever read.

While I bought this book expecting an "engaging and erudite" insight into the biological causes behind human behavior, I ended up getting one scientist's narrow perspective. Although the concept of the book is promising, its goals would perhaps be better served in a multi-author collection of essays. This book, written by a researcher of primate stress and its effects on their behavior, might be better titled "What Baboons do in their Spare Time and Some Obscure Connections to Humans".

In the fine tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen Jay Gould and perhaps even Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Sapolsky brings behaviorial biology to the masses, folding in a good dose of neural anc clinical psychology in the mix.
With the softest of literary touches, a biting wit, and anecdotes that will make even the most deskbound of paper pushers yearn to "do science", he manages to relate the most cutting edge theories and discoveries of medical research in a way that anyone can understand. No one who is not him or herself involved directly in scientific research can afford not to read this book.