Mary Roach · 2025 · global

Mary Roach's 2025 book is a globe-trotting, wisecracking tour of the science of replacing worn-out body parts, from prosthetics and skin grafts to 3D-printed organs and animal donors. The route follows her reporting from California to Boston, Tbilisi, and a pig farm in China.

1. 1
   San Diego

   At a stem-cell 'hair nursery' in San Diego, Roach watches scientists try to grow new follicles, one small front in the long campaign against the body's failures.

2. 2
   The Bay Area

   In a Bay Area operating theatre she looks on as a surgeon swaps a worn human hip for titanium and polyethylene, a joint remade from spare parts.

3. 3
   Boston

   In a Boston burn unit she learns how ruined skin is patched, grafted, and coaxed to heal, and what it costs to rebuild a body.

4. 4
   Tbilisi

   In Tbilisi she visits surgeons who rebuild the most intimate anatomy, where cutting-edge medicine runs up against dignity and taboo.

5. 5
   Sichuan

   On a farm in Sichuan she meets the gene-edited pigs whose hearts and kidneys may one day beat and filter inside human beings.