ANN ARBOR, MI \u2014 Machines keeping hearts alive outside the body at a University of Michigan laboratory caught the attention of bestselling author Mary Roach. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s not a scientist, but she uses humor to make scientific knowledge digestible for everyday readers, as evidenced by her eight published books. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople call me a science writer\u2026but I have a strong inclination to make things entertaining and fun,\u201d Roach, 66, said. <\/p>\n
The California-based author now has a ninth book with a chapter covering her time at UM.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy<\/a>\u201d published by W.W. Norton & Co., describes efforts to replace and protect human body parts with out-of-body machinery in simple, comedic words. <\/p>\n Roach will speak<\/a> about the book Tuesday, Sept. 23, at the City Opera House in Traverse City as part of the National Writers Series<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about past and present efforts to build, grow, swap out and generally replace pieces of the human body if they aren\u2019t working or they\u2019re wearing out,\u201d Roach explained. <\/p>\n She said her research interests lie in efforts to increase organ shelf life when organs are outside the body. <\/p>\n A chapter from her book features her visit to the Extracorporeal Life Support Lab on UM\u2019s medical campus. <\/p>\n The lab conducts research on life-support and organ-transplant technology.<\/p>\n During her day at the lab in January 2024, she observed a pig-heart perfusion done using an external device. She noted researchers taking the pig heart out of its body, attaching it to tubes connected to an echocardiogram and pumping blood throughout the organ. <\/p>\n Although a researcher monitored the heart the entire time, she was fascinated by how the heart continued beating outside the host\u2019s body. <\/p>\n Roach thought of a myriad ways this research was applicable to humans. <\/p>\n \u201cCould they get a heart in a device like this to last 24 or 48 hours and eventually longer?\u201d Roach said. \u201cWhat if this person is a marathoner and their heart\u2019s in great shape? It\u2019s a shame to lose that heart.\u201d<\/p>\n She first engaged with UM by contacting Robert Bartlett, lab director and UM professor emeritus of surgery, to set up a lab visit. She said Bartlett was instrumental in giving her lab access. <\/p>\n She remained in touch with the lab researchers throughout her book-writing process and sent the lab a copy of her book.<\/p>\n She included the heart perfusion scene in her book and described it as an editorialized \u201cEdgar Allan Poe situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Roach wanted to write about her UM visit because she hopes to make scientific research engaging for readers who may dislike the field. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to bring it to life for people because it\u2019s really cool science and people have a mistaken notion that science is boring and it could not possibly be anything boring about what was going on that day in the lab,\u201d Roach explained. \u201cIt was incredibly interesting and inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n As with her previous titles, \u201cthe human body is the stage\u201d is a recurring theme in her newest book. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible, complex, surreal, surprising, beautiful piece of machinery,\u201d Roach said. <\/p>\n Before her career as a published author, Roach wrote travel stories for science magazines throughout her 20s. <\/p>\n Through her travel writing, she said she \u201ccame to see the human body as an interesting terrain, almost a foreign planet.\u201d<\/p>\n Readers can expect \u201ca mix of narrative and science\u201d in her book, as she describes. <\/p>\n Want more Ann Arbor-area news? 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