According to Amazon.com’s rankings, the no. 1 new release in “health teaching materials” is a book by Endocrine Society member Thomas Landefeld, PhD. And it’s all about sex.
Sex: Understanding What You Know, What You Want to Know, and What You Have Not Even Thought About: Knowing About Sex was written by Landefeld to provide readers some additional knowledge about sex.
Originally, Landefeld wrote the book to provide supplemental information for students in his biology courses since the background topic for all the courses he teaches is reproduction. “Then, in the course of writing the book, coupled with general discussions about reproduction, it seemed obvious that the general public could benefit from the same type of information,” Landefeld says.
Landefeld, professor of biology and pre-health advisor at California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, Calif., is trained in the area of reproductive endocrinology, previously conducting research on the regulation of the female sexual cycle as well as actively teaching aspects of sex and sexuality in the college classroom, with an emphasis not just on learning for the class but most importantly for practical applications in life.
When asked what would surprise readers the most, Landefeld says that some of the “interesting facts” cited throughout the book as well as in a special section are nuggets of information that are not typically common knowledge. “These facts were both unique as well as basic and things that most folks probably did not know,” he says.
Landefeld says that he was prompted to write the book after being consistently surprised and, unfortunately, disappointed that his students had so little knowledge about some of the most basic information about sex and the processes associated with it, especially since he was teaching biology classes. “With that, and as a result of some of those discussions, it also became obvious that there was a broader need to be met, e.g., outside of the classes as well,” he explains. “This is especially the case when ‘sex’ is all around us in the media via commercials, TV, movies, and so on, without much attention devoted to its proper teaching.”
Landefeld was featured in the April 2016 issue of Endocrine News where he wrote about why he chose endocrinology as a profession in the magazine’s “Why Endocrinology?” column, which is running throughout 2016 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Endocrine Society.
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