The Heart's Slow Reboot

I was always deeply reassured from the meme that passed among school kids of my generation that all the cells in our bodies are replaced every seven years. I didn't know anything about computers in those days, but I dreamed of something akin to a reboot. I was so ready for cell replacement I could almost taste it.

Then we were told heart tissue never regenerates (the Grinch's legendary heart expansion up there on the hill above Whoville was - who knew? - solely the stuff of fiction). We're stuck with the same damned heart for the duration, scientists said.

But interesting new research indicates that the heart does churn its cells...albeit real slowly.