The urban legend goes like this: Stand too close to a microwave, and your body could be bombarded with secondhand radiation that gives you cancer. The FDA, however, claims that microwaves are perfectly safe. So who’s telling the truth? Surprise! It’s the FDA, since there’s currently no...
According to the marketing pitches, filters make for tastier, safer, healthier water. Which… sounds like it should make sense? Your anal-retentive roommate who keeps going on about his jug of filtered water certainly believes it, too. But is filtered water actually safer and healthier than the good ol’...
When life hits DEFCON 1, chances are, you’re sweating. Maybe you’re minutes away from a job interview at the tech startup you’ve always wanted to work for — the one where everyone rides mini-scooters and the fridge is always stocked with six different kinds of sparkling water. Or maybe...
If we’re to believe the myriad online forums on erectile dysfunction, impotence is the greatest curse that can ever beset a man. And the data tell us it’s all too common. Case in point: According to the Cleveland Clinic, as many as 52 percent of men will...
If you’ve recently come upon hard times and recycling bottles and cans isn’t quite cutting it, you’re probably eyeing that lucrative organ black market and wondering, Do I really need two kidneys? How about both lungs? Is it possible to live without my stomach — or just a portion...
The frying pan, it turns out, isn’t fungi’s friend. According to researchers from the Mushroom Technological Research Center of La Rioja in Spain (yes, the Spanish have a mushroom research center), the best way to cook mushrooms while still preserving their nutritional properties is to heat them...
Last week in this space, we recounted a few of the things that lower the risk of prostate cancer — from balding to espresso to ejaculating once a day. The ejaculating part especially interested us, for obvious reasons but also because of the reason why. Per a 2003 study conducted by...
Just like the scorpion-embroidered satin jacket worn by Ryan Gosling in Drive, some fashion choices are better left to Ryan Gosling and Ryan Gosling only. Another example from the same movie: driving gloves, which Gosling slips on any time he’s about to take to the mean streets...
Few things are as satisfying as sliding into a bed on which the sheets have been made to look like a display model at Ikea. Despite this feeling, however, 59 percent of people don’t make their beds, according to a 2012 survey. In fact, if the study...
When it comes to ER visits, Thanksgiving is no Fourth of July (with its finger-sacrificing backyard pyrotechnics) or St. Patrick’s Day (with its vomitous binge drinking). But that doesn’t mean the day of gluttony takes no physical toll. Especially the deep-fried turkeys—the number of home cooking fires...