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Are there currently any people making use of military maggots, medicinal military maggots?

I just wanted to say that. That was all that question was about. What would soldiers need kitty litter for? Why does the military consider flies to be a mortal threat?

And what, for heaven's sake, is a chicken gun.

This week on War College, we're talking about some of the weirder aspects of

outfitting an army and the science of keeping soldiers in the field.

Matthew Galt had to take on the sole hosting duties because I was called away for

breaking news, but I think this show is fantastic. Hello and

and welcome to war college. I'm Matthew Galt with Wars Boring. We're talking today with

Mary Roach, who is a science writer. Her newest book is Grunt, The Curious Science of Humans

at war.

Mary, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thanks for talking to me.

So you've previously written about corpses, the afterlife, sex, the elementary canal, what drew you to the military?

Well I'm always writing about the human body and some way or another.

A few years back I was reporting a story in India on the hottest chili pepper in the world, arguably,

hottest chili pepper.

The Indian Defence Ministry I learned had weaponized the chili pepper, which appealed to me. I thought that was a fascinating twist on an otherwise kind of straightforward food type of story. So I went over to the lab where they'd done that and I while I was there learned about a bunch of other projects

...