Mekala asks: What is amniotic fluid actually made of? Is it just water and stuff the baby poops and pees or is it like saliva? Just wondering. Thanks! Essential for the development of a healthy baby, amniotic fluid is a complex liquid that nourishes, facilitates growth, cushions and protects the growing fetus. Amniotic fluid begins to form almost as soon […]
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Characterized by a remarkable return of mental faculties and sometimes physical skills to terminal patients who were thought to have lost such abilities, Terminal Lucidity, while extraordinary, is also a very real and extremely mind boggling phenomenon that has largely been ignored by modern scientists, despite references to it going all the way back to Hippocrates. A relatively recent term, […]
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Ryan L. asks: What makes Mexican jumping beans move around? Not actually a bean at all (beans being seeds from the family Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae), the Mexican Jumping Bean is the seed pod of a shrub called Sebastiania pavoniana that has been implanted with larva from the Laspeyresia saltitans (also called Cydia deshaisiana) moth. When S. pavoniana begins […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal. Check out their YouTube channel here! Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP) is technically classified as a peripheral neuropathy- basically meaning you have damage to, or a disease affecting, your nerves. This rare condition leaves its sufferers without the ability to feel pain. It might seem like […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal. Check out their YouTube channel here! In short, yes, a man can test positive if he pees on a pregnancy tester. How? What a pregnancy test looks for is the presence of elevated levels of the hormone beta human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). There are certain types […]
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Ali K asks: I was just wondering why men have nipples and if it’s true that men can lactate? The human body really is an engineering marvel; even the most substandard model comes outfitted with the latest in 576 megapixel camera technology, a self contained bio-energy factory, self-healing triplicate outer protection that can handle quite a bit of rough-and tumble, […]
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Erica H. asks: How do we pee in terms of the nuts and bolts of it? Why can we only pee sometimes and not just anytime there is liquid in our bladders? What’s the trigger and how exactly is the pee expelled once the floodgates do open? Is it just gravity or do our stomach muscles squeeze our bladders? Inquiring […]
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When you die, your body is, in a quite real sense, never more alive. Beyond the amazing number of microbes that already call your body home (more of their cells than your own at any given time), other bacteria and varying fungi and fauna colonize the body with great rapidity after death. As the body becomes biome, flesh undergoes a […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal. Check out their YouTube channel here! Taking another person’s feces and shoving it up your bum doesn’t seem like a worthwhile medical procedure, but in reality, this form of defecation sharing can save someone’s life. So drink some coffee, eat a bran muffin and read on […]
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Maria D. asks: Why do fluorescent lights buzz? Comprised of a sealed tube coated on the inside with a phosphor powder and filled with (usually) argon and a tiny bit of mercury, the way in which fluorescent bulbs produce light is extremely fascinating. While the underlying physical mechanisms in the fixture and bulb can vary a bit in design, in […]
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Blain F. asks: What function does natural aspirin serve in the plants that produce it? Salicylic acid is found in varying degrees in a wide range of plants including potatoes, tobacco, unripe fruits (including blackberries and blueberries, cantaloupe, kiwi, green pepper, tomato and olives), mushrooms, and, of course, willow. A phenolic compound, together with cytokinins, auxins, gibberellins, ethylene and abscisic […]
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Will K. asks: Is it true that some people are born with tails? To some extent the answer to the question of whether some humans are born with tails and how prevalent it is depends on your definition of “tail.” For instance, a variety of things may protrude from the tailbone of a newborn, including cysts, tumors and even a […]
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If you’ve ever smoked marijuana, then you’ve probably had some experience watching all three Lord of the Rings movies while eating the most delicious steak you’ve ever had owing to the fact that you decided to cover it in peanut butter and jelly. It is at this point that you might find yourself wondering why marijuana gives you the munchies. […]
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Alex S. asks: Why doesn’t oil and water mix? Made of different elements, and with distinct structures, densities and even dissimilar polarities, it’s no wonder oil and water don’t get along. They can be forced to cooperate, however, and there are several examples of this that are likely currently sitting in your pantry or refrigerator. But why don’t oil and […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal For those not familiar, Oil-Pulling is the act of filling your mouth with a tablespoon of food based oil and then you swish it around for 10-20 minutes before spitting it into the trash. While a quick online search will yield countless claims of a number […]
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Tumarux asks: Why aren’t our fingers all the same length? The human hand is remarkably different from that of other primates, with shorter fingers, a smaller palm and a significantly stronger thumb; of course, the most notable feature of our hands is the ability of the thumb to perfectly and comfortably oppose (come into square contact at the tips) each […]
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Alex B. asks: Why are farts flammable? Contrary to popular belief, it’s probably not methane leaking from behind that reckless “bros” light on fire (known as pyroflatulence); rather, it’s most likely primarily hydrogen. In a typical, healthy body, human farts are comprised primarily of hydrogen, nitrogen, some carbon dioxide and potentially a small amount of methane and oxygen. These farts […]
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First discovered back in the 1930s, chlorine trifluoride is a rather curious chemical that easily reacts, sometimes explosively, with just about every known substance on Earth. Just to get the ball rolling, here’s a few of the more unusual things chlorine trifluoride is known to set fire to on contact: glass, sand, asbestos, rust, concrete, people, pyrex, cloth, and the dreams of children… […]
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