The recent release of The Martian had us wondering: How would living in space actually affect Matt Damon’s body? Would his skin age at a ludicrous speed? Would his hair grow like Rapunzel’s? To get some answers, we talked to retired astronaut and author of The Ordinary...
With football season upon us, it’s time for America to do what it does best: Planning what to eat during the big game. And there’s nothing better to chow down on while the ol’ pigskin is being tossed around than, you guessed it, pig. But not the...
Societies develop rules of etiquette for a number of reasons: To signal that you come in peace (in the case of handshakes), to embarrass you at the dinner table (the justification for dessert spoons and fish forks) or to keep those around you safe from whatever leaves...
The gasses released when you fart are like apples: All it takes is a single bad one to spoil the whole bunch. Most of the gas that comes tooting out of your hind end, including carbon dioxide and methane, is odorless. But when even just a little...
Gum can stick to many surfaces—the bottom of your shoes, the underside of your desk and the locks of your flowing body hair (in even the most private of areas). But your digestive tract isn’t one of them. As we’ve written before, some of the hygiene tips...
Regardless of whether you consider yourself someone who eats to live, lives to eat or avoids the choice altogether by taking the Soylent route, we all need to provide our bodies with the energy required to do the work that keeps us alive. We get that fuel by...
Come on, admit it—you’ve done it. Peeing in the pool is practically a summer ritual, like catching fireflies, strolling on the boardwalk or lying about having sex at camp. While only 17 percent of swimmers come clean about it, a whopping 85 percent of people assume it’s the other...
Like Goldilocks, the human body is always in search of a happy medium where everything is just right. While you’re probably not testing out porridge or bear beds in the pursuit of mental equilibrium, your body has many mechanisms to keep you balanced with regards to temperature,...
Like father, like son, right? Pretty much, it turns out—though it’s more accurate to say like parent, like child. There are many areas where children take after their parents, but only a few seem to be specific to gender: The presence of sex-controlled genes (as the scientists say)...
Getting swoll. Doing work. Pumping iron. No matter what you call it, exercising can be tough on your body. There’s a certain degree of pain or discomfort while you’re working out, but the real burn is often felt in the days after your initial trip to the...
One of life’s cruel ironies is that the occasions when we most desperately want to wash our hands—e.g., after shaking hands with a runny-nosed colleague after a meeting—water and soap are nowhere to be found. Hand-sanitizing gel is sometimes offered as a substitute, but can you really...
Like an extra helping of pecan pie at Thanksgiving, the last hour at the pool or the latest installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, we’ve all experienced too much of a good thing. After a gluttonous turn at the dessert table, you can sleep it...
