It’s easy to convince yourself that all the soap and shampoo cascading down your legs is enough to clean your feet when you’re rushing blearily through your morning shower. But is that really true? Chemist and product wiz, Fadi Mourad, took us through the science of how...
Contact lens manufacturers take all the guesswork out of determining how long each lens can be worn: Look right on the box, where the lifespan is clearly spelled out. Done, question answered. But for reasons of frugality, laziness, curiosity or our unwavering desire to push the human...
In the battle against the elements, it’s one of life’s cruel jokes that our lips, one of the most exposed areas of our bodies to the sun, wind and cold (let alone our penchant for idle talk, a salty snack or a chance at first base), is...
The French have croissants. The Spanish have churros. And here in America, the doughnut is our dessert-for-breakfast food of choice. The sweet, ring-shaped fried cake has become the expected accompaniment to any office breakfast meeting. But considering your standard doughnut is packed with more than 300 calories,...
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...
PSA: All quality condoms have an expiration date printed on both the box and the foil packaging. This, of course, is a fruitless effort by condom manufacturers, since most people using them are either distracted by the naked person who wants to have sex with them; fumbling...
We can all expect to resemble raisins someday—it’s unfortunately just a natural part of human aging. What’s happening to our skin that causes it to wrinkle, though? And is there really anything we can do to slow that process? Dermatologist Shari Lipner gave us the lowdown. “Wrinkles...
People almost universally hate their banks. Stockbrokers — surprise! — often can’t be trusted. Wealth managers can be straight-up charlatans. It often feels like everyone is out to get your money, probably because most of them are. Which leads to the obvious question: Who can you trust with your money? Your...
When you’re going through puberty, it’s easy to believe one of the perks of adulthood is not having a pizza face. But alas, adulthood disappoints once again, because, for many of us, acne returns with a vengeance in our postpubertal years—in fact, studies indicate that between 40...
In this edition of It’s Not a Stupid Question, we’re looking at vibrating—a sensation many of us have experienced at the hands of a massage chair or perhaps something a little more personal. But what is it about jiggling that feels simultaneously soothing and stimulating at the...
Mouths are home to many odd sensations, but perhaps one of the strangest is the instant freeze that occurs when following a minty stick of gum with a gulp of cold water. Therefore, in this edition of It’s Not a Stupid Question, we ask why the heck...
Welcome back to It’s Not a Stupid Question. Cleaning out the refrigerator is one of those tasks that’s easy to ignore, since it’s a mess that’s literally kept behind closed doors. But ask any one of the 48 million Americans—or one-sixth of the population—who get sick from...
