Replaceable You

Mary Roach examines the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy, tracing tools and techniques from historical improvisations to cutting-edge lab work. She documents how noses were sculpted from brass, skin borrowed from frogs, hearts taken from pigs, eye parts fashioned from jet canopies, and breasts built from petroleum by-products as precursors to current efforts. Roach follows contemporary attempts to grow body parts from stem cells and 3D printers and asks practical questions: when might someone choose a prosthetic over a limb, can a donated heart be kept beating indefinitely, and can an intestine serve as a workable substitute for a vagina. Her travels include an OR at a burn unit in Boston, a xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell hair nursery in San Diego.