As much as cuticles might look like useless flaps of skin that should have been eliminated by evolution long, long ago, they actually protect our nails and fingers from serious infections. “Cuticles are like caulking in the bathtub,” explains dermatologist Adriana Schmidt of the Santa Monica Dermatology...
If, as George Bernard Shaw once said, “whisky is liquid sunshine,” hangovers are a meteor straight to the face. But how exactly does too much of our favorite alcoholic beverage add up to a throbbing headache, dizzying nausea and draining fatigue? Dr. Aaron White, senior scientific advisor...
We’ve all drunk, at least once, to the point where the room starts to spin uncontrollably. Or rather, the point where it feels like the room is spinning uncontrollably, which begs the question: What is alcohol doing to us that makes it feel like we’re on a...
What is it about wintertime that turns our immune systems to mush? Even if you’re not in the depths of winter common colds can spread like the bubonic plague. Primary care physician Dr. Marc Leavey explains that the cold weather isn’t what’s making us sick—it’s what we...
As you may have discovered during a relentless tickle attack, it’s really tough not to laugh, even when you hate it. According to Dr. Alan J. Fridlund, an expert on nonverbal communication and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University...
Fingers Crossed There are 27 bones, 29 joints and at least 123 named ligaments in the human hand, but there are zero muscles: Tendons in our fingers are moved by the muscles of the forearm. Weirdly enough, if you were to lose one finger, the hand surgeons’...
It Can’t Be Beat Every minute, your heart pumps about eight pints of blood through a system of vessels that’s more than 60,000 miles long. All in all, that translates to a whopping total of about 2,000 gallons of blood each and every day. Take that, Big...
Joint Effort The human elbow is a hinge-joint system made up of three bones: The humerus, the radius and the ulna. The humerus starts at the shoulder socket, while the radius comes from the thumb-area of the wrist and the ulna from the little finger side. Those...
…at least you don’t live in America! As camping season commences, we thought we’d take a look at the worst dangers you’ll face, both here at home and in the country of our benevolent overlords. Turns out, the Yanks have it far, far worse. Look, we’ll prove...
We asked Hollywood manicurist Kelly Bannon, who’s cut more than 250,000 nails, how to clip yours with the same precision as Edward Scissorhands.
Birds Can See Colours We Can’t No matter how clever the photography app or which type of filter we use, we’ll never be able to see more of the world than birds, since they have access to a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that isn’t visible to...
Provided we don’t end up in a Mad Max-style post-apocalypse, where water is hoarded by barbarian warlords, the future looks pretty good for the average bathroom. Here are just some of the upgrades we’re likely to see become standard in the next couple of decades. The Bathroom...
