From heart to skin to hair, 'Replaceable You' dives into the science of transplant

From heart to skin to hair, 'Replaceable You' dives into the science of transplant

Terry Gross

September 16, 2025 / 11:59 am

Science writer Mary Roach is fascinated by the human body, especially, she says, the " gooey bits and pieces of us that are performing miracles on a daily basis."

Take the human heart, for instance. If we're lucky, Roach says, our hearts might continue beating for 80+ years. "What thing that you buy at Best Buy keeps going that long?" she asks.

Roach is known for her books about what makes the human body so remarkable. She's done deep dives on human cadavers , the digestive system and the science of sex . Now, in Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy , she chronicles both the history of body part replacement (including prosthetic noses that da