From StarTalk.
Are our parts replaceable? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, & Gary O’Reilly sit down with bestselling author Mary Roach, who discusses her newest book, Replaceable You, and the quest to grow organs, build parts, and engineer the human body.
The discussion begins with an exploration of the human body as a complex machine and how far medicine has progressed in the replacement parts business, a practice dating back to 1500 BC. We look at pop culture, where shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman gave us the word bionic and the dream of being built better, stronger, faster. Mary shares anecdotes from her book, including a deep dive into Iron Lungs from the polio era and the difficulties of modern prosthetics, particularly hands.
The conversation takes a historical turn as we look at nose replacement, which has been a necessity since nasal mutilation was a popular punishment for crime. Roach shares stories of an army surgeon who designed a Groucho Marx-style nose on a pair of glasses, and earlier surgeries requiring patients to keep their heads immobilized with a flap of tissue tethered to their own arm.
Next, we turn to bionics and organ replacement. They discuss the challenges and triumphs of modern prosthetics, including osteo-integration and the issue of infection. The biggest obstacle in whole-organ transplantation is rejection. This leads to a discussion of xenotransplantation (using pig organs), the necessity of genetic editing to remove certain proteins, and chimerism: growing human organs inside pigs for personalized spare parts.
Finally, Mary Roach reveals a bizarre chapter from her research: a surgeon who used a man’s middle finger to recreate his penis after cancer, a moment that prompts Chuck Nice to question the limits of surgical innovation. They wrap up by looking at 3D-printed organs and whether it could be accelerated by AI. Is this the road to immortality, or simply better medical care?
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction: Mary Roach
05:09 – Writing Replaceable You
09:02 – Why Haven’t We Figured Out Regenerative Medicine
11:16 – Replacement Noses
16:22 – The Golden Ratio
18:47 – How Close Are We to the Bionic Man?
21:31 – Osteointegration
24:36 – Organ Replacement
34:48 – The Finger Penis
39:17 – 3D Printing Organs
43:53 – Ethics
45:52 – A Cosmic Perspective
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