The recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) is a touchstone in anatomy education and evolutionary biology research, known for its unnecessary U-turn in the neck. But can we learn something intelligent from...
The young mother was surprised by the doctor’s question. “What does your little girl eat for breakfast?” “Only hot oatmeal with milk,” she answered. “Does she put any sugar on it?” the doctor...
Summer is almost here! Tans will get darker and hair will get lighter. If you really want to get blonder this year, many brands sell hair lightening sprays – a way to heighten the sun’s natural...
What if your significant other gifted you baking powder instead of chocolates? What if they invented baking powder? In 1843, British chemist Alfred Bird did just that for his lucky, yeast-allergic,...
One of the questions I’ve been asked recently with increasing frequency is how to avoid exposure to those “forever chemicals” that we are being warned about in numerous newspaper articles, books,...
As strange as it sounds, being allergic to the cold is a real thing, and it’s called “cold urticaria.” Compared with nut or pollen allergies, an allergy to cold temperatures is much less common,...
Red signifies danger in many cultures. From a distance, green is highly visible by day. At night, yellow is easier to see. That briefly explains the choice of colours on every traffic light. But...
One of my favourite Seinfeld episodes is “The Bro.” On discovering that George’s father, Frank, has “man-boobs,” Kramer concocts a male version of a bra, that he calls “The Bro.” Frank, who prefers...
By 1878, Louis Pasteur had formulated his germ theory of disease and had turned his attention to chicken cholera, a problem that plagued the French poultry industry. He managed to isolate a microbe...
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