It is the only organ that grows back, and most people cannot name what it does. Here are seventeen.
1. It Grows Back, Which Nothing Else Does
Remove a substantial…
Almost Everybody Has the Explanation Wrong
The standard account, repeated more or less universally, is that lying on an arm cuts off the blood supply, the limb is starved of…
Try It Before Reading Any Further
Press a finger against one nostril and breathe in through the other. Then swap. For most people, at most moments, the two are noticeably…
The Universal Misunderstanding
Everybody believes the same thing: the stomach is empty, so it complains. The noise is the body asking for food, and once the food arrives the noise…
The Metaphor Is the Wrong Way Round
Almost everybody carries the same mental picture of what a kidney does. Blood arrives dirty, passes through something like a coffee filter, and…
The Reflex That Will Not Take Instructions
A sneeze is one of a very small number of things the body does that a person can feel approaching, can do absolutely…