I discovered Mary Roach in a Borders store in Somerville, New Jersey. Well, it might’ve been Raritan, technically, but it was right off the infamous Somerville Circle. We were fairly new in town and I was looking for reading material. I found Spook, her second book. I enjoyed it so much I went back for her first book. I introduced my wife to her third book and, starting with book number four, we’ve been reading them together. (All of her books are at least mentioned on this blog; I rarely follow an author like that.) That brings us to Replaceable You, which published last year. The subtitle, Adventures in Human Anatomy, gives you an idea of the content. Roach is a charming science writer. The two traits don’t often meet. She peers at things that most of us shy away from, which, in a way, makes her a good potential horror writer. Instead, she looks at her subjects with humor, often self-deprecating, and a sense of wonder.
Replaceable You isn’t my favorite of her books, but it’s not her fault. Roach is about four years older than me and she too is facing aging. This book is about parts of bodies that can be replaced, printed, or engineered. Some of it is surprising and much of it almost incredible. The reason that it isn’t my favorite is that it hits pretty close to home. Two of my immediate family members have chronic health conditions. (Life, of course, is a chronic health condition.) I often think about the implications, but reading about them makes me uncomfortable. As one reviewer once indicated, though, reading Mary Roach on any subject is enjoyable.
We are embodied creatures. This is one reason that “artificial intelligence” will always retain the emphasis on the first word. One of the surprising things I learned from this book was that organs/tissues are now starting to be 3-D printed. Last time I looked, 3-D printing involved plastic, but in some places biological components are being used. The tech isn’t far enough along to print actual organs yet, but there is incredible work being done. It’s quite possible, and this is me, not Roach, that people born in a couple of decades (depending on whether we can get Republicans out of the White House, and science funding can be restored) may well be able to have biologically personalized health care that includes new organs made from their own cells. That gets too close to eternity for my liking. I enjoy living, but wouldn’t want to do it forever. I’ll be okay along the way, however, as long as there are Mary Roach books to read.