Reaching the end of a two-and-a-half-year book-writing process, science writer Mary Roach is poised like a thoroughbred at the starting gate. The New York Times best-selling author of titles such as “Stiff,” “Fuzz,” “Bonk,” “Grunt” and others) will gallop on a cross-country tour upon the Sept. 16 release of her new book, “Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy” (W.W. Norton & Co.).
Roach’s previous books had her chewing — but not masticating (more on that later) — on quirky, icky, funny and fascinating science and topics like what happens to your body just before and after death, sexual psychology including things such as myth-busting real facts about human sexuality. Other explorations in the mucky journey to expulsion that food and liquids take along the alimentary canal or the ramifications to the human body of being rocketed into space suggest Roach will go anywhere in pursuit of science and story.
Employing the same intense, research-write-refine-repeat approach to “Replaceable You” as she applied to prior books, Roach interviewed dozens of patients, physicians, pathologists, engineers and scientists. Sometimes participating, mostly listening and observing, she learned firsthand about cutting-edge technologies, progressive studies, real-life patient experiences and the often bone-chilling history behind scientific attempts to recreate components of the impossibly complex human body.
Among the most intriguing, sensational discoveries are the claims that dead people get goose bumps; that a person can breathe through the anus; that gametogenesis is a technique allowing offspring to be created from one’s own blood or skin cells without need of a partner contributor; and that modern dentistry is immeasurably marvelous for having evolved from the horrors of early false teeth and the masticator, a tool that allowed weak-toothed Victorian dinner guests to pre-chew food for later consumption at a feast.
Less jaw-dropping but still chock-full of astonishing information are chapters on skin grafting; artificial organs; prosthetics; cataract surgery; breast implants and gender-affirming procedures; hair transplants; and tissue and organ donation. To every place, person or procedure involving fabrication of the human body, Roach is drawn like a moth to light. The stories in “Replaceable You” are steeped in science and often simultaneously profound, weird, funny and veer toward borderline or already miraculous.
In a recent interview, Roach spoke from her home in Oakland’s Glenview neighborhood. She says the entry points to writing “Replaceable You” were two stories that could be considered prototypes for what often boosts her early interests into becoming a book.
“Usually I have an idea and start out thinking, ‘This thing is interesting … and here’s another thing. Maybe I can find 10 or 12 others that are related.’ Then I find there’s one umbrella topic that embraces all of them.”
With the new book, Roach heard from a reader (Chapter 7’s Judy Berna) who happened to mention she was an elective amputee.
“She wanted to have her foot removed. Even though it was a viable foot, it wasn’t functional. For years, it caused multiple complications. She had a hard time finding a surgeon who would remove it and replace it with a prosthetic. I thought, ‘People’s hips wear out, and they replace them, so why does this seem so different?’ ”
The second story was told by a woman who runs a research lab that is working on developing stem cells derived from adipose (fatty connective) tissue.
“She mentioned a paper talking about a surgeon who’d done an auto-transplant. That was taking a man’s middle finger and using it to craft a replacement penis. I, of course, pictured an actual finger, not a component of it, as the neo-penis. Wow, I thought, that’s an interesting approach.”
From those prompts, Roach was spring-loaded and dove headlong into learning the challenges and opportunities of replacing, building and swapping out parts of the human body. Research resulted in what Roach calls, “a heap of notes, add-on papers and archival documents.” Structuring each chapter to provide readers with a clear doorway into an angle and application of the general topic came from rereading the material, honing each first paragraph opener to near-perfection, lots of long walks and time spent simply thinking.
“A heap is a mess until it becomes a chapter,” she says.
The most memorable conversations, because they completely altered her mindset, involved the aformentioned Berna and researchers whom Roach met at an Amputees Coalition National Conference.
“I had that weird bias that’s it’s best to have all your original bits. That’s not always true. What happens when somebody goes through what’s called limb salvage surgeries? Many, many operations on limbs that are mangled, destroyed.
“The surgeries aiming at improvement and recovery don’t always get there, whereas people who get prosthetics are out there right away, hiking, running, biking. You can do all manner of things with amazing terminal devices. That was new to me and a shift.”
Amid the profundity of recognizing stigmas — her own and society’s — Roach was constantly reminded of the oddball humor found amid scientists, who speak frankly, even bluntly about symptoms, procedures, perils, pitfalls and progress or lack thereof.
“We have sensitivity and concern about using the right, respectful words, but for them, this is their normal. I hope I’m not offending people when I give them the bends from shifting in my books from humor to more serious and back. I spent two years thrashing around in the material, so it began to sound normal to me.”
The humor is often self-deprecating rather than other-directed and lets Roach indulge in a favorite activity: word play. Speaking with a person about the Orbis “Flying Eye Hospital” that trains surgeons to do cataract surgery in remote locations around the world, he referenced the idea, “If you can teach a man to fish … .” Roach thought, “Who is Amanda Fish?” She extends the joke, writing that Orbis has been teaching Amanda Fish in places worldwide for 42 years.
“I like to toy around with words,” she says. “The specificity of 1800s garden-variety terms like ‘masticator’ is delightful and not like today’s multisyllabic names.”
Reflecting on the media that rushes to present preliminary findings of a device, drug or treatment that might take a decade or more to reach the public, Roach says, “The science that’s so cool and exciting will likely take years to be approved, so it’s frustrating for the person waiting.”
It is less so for the researchers, who believe valuable things are learned from every “failure,” she says. Each answer found uncovers important questions with potential to lead to new advancements — a common refrain Roach hears from researchers.
In the end, Roach says, she found herself amazed by how far the science of replacement has come and surprised by how far it must go to recreate or replicate what our complex human bodies do miraculously, sometimes automatically and daily. For more information about her new book, visit maryroach.net.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.