Schweineherzen und Froschhaut: Mary Roach geht die Suche nach dem Wiederaufbau des Körpers an

*In Replaceable You, the science writer surveys medicine’s greatest breakthroughs and strangest failures, from cataract surgery to polyester hair transplants.*

*Alice Robb for Bloomberg News*

When Paul McCartney was growing up in Liverpool, his father suggested he have all his teeth ripped out at 21 — replacing them now would save him the trouble of letting them rot one by one. In certain mid-century American and British circles, these preemptive dentures were considered a prudent rite of passage.

This is just one example of humanity’s centuries-long quest to recreate lost or malfunctioning body parts, and one of many chronicled in Mary Roach’s Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy (W.W. Norton, Sept. 16). The popular science writer’s ninth book is part cautionary tale — an appropriate subtitle might be “a history of terrible ideas” — and part celebration of all that modern medicine has achieved.

In the former category: 19th century burn victims who received skin grafts from chickens and frogs, only for their bodies to reject them as foreign objects once the patients’ immune systems recovered; balding men, who in the 1970s had polyester hair crocheted onto their scalps, imparting coverage that looked about as natural as an American Girl doll; and those elective false teeth that were, of course, a disaster. They offered approximately one-fourth “the chewing efficiency of natural teeth,” and had to be replaced every five to 10 years. (Luckily, McCartney kept his originals.)

Still, the success stories are extraordinary. The invention of the positive-pressure ventilator in the mid-20th century has allowed countless patients with pneumonia, strokes and Covid-19 to outsource their breathing to a machine. Cataract surgery — in which the natural lens is replaced with an optimized, artificial one — has become so safe and effective that people who are merely nearsighted are choosing to undergo it. “Myoelectric prosthetics” have sensors that respond to the muscles of the residual limb; amputees can use adaptive devices for tasks as varied as folding origami, strumming a guitar or mopping the floor.

[Read the full review here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-12/mary-roach-s-new-book-tackles-the-quest-to-rebuild-the-human-body?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1Nzc2NTEwMywiZXhwIjoxNzU4MzY5OTAzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUMkgyS0lHUFFRQU0wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.pU_FNcHLb8xhOkFkLgUi2DuXiKlAfbAzTaHPrtKZDVw)