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Dan BaumgardtThe Conversation |
Christmas isn’t always the most wonderful time of the year – here’s a brief guide to some of the most common festive ailments
British TV presenter Davina McCall has undergone neurosurgery to remove a colloid cyst – a type of benign brain tumour. McCall was diagnosed with...
Feet can be polarising. There are those for whom a long soak in a foot spa or a pedicure is the ultimate cure for stress. Then there are those who...
Getting ripped takes effort. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson didn’t get to look the way he does by sitting on the sofa with a packet of Doritos...
The Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium once said that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. It’s a sentiment...
Thanks to a quirk known as unconscious selective attention, your brain has learned to ignore your nose. A prominent feature that’s positioned...
One of my grandmother’s favourite things to cook was cold pressed ox tongue, though it’s a tradition that I don’t really feel the need to...
In my youth, I remember several people I knew tried a popular diet based around liquid meal replacements. One delicious, nutritious milkshake for...
As a medical student, nails were one part of my anatomy course that I really struggled with. I found it difficult, at first, to stomach the sight of...
The English actor Kate Beckinsale recently lost her stepfather. She experienced such intense grief at the loss that it “burned a hole” in her...
In the first Harry Potter novel, Professor Severus Snape hopes to embarrass Harry by quizzing him on the topic of bezoars. According to Snape, they...
One of my hometown’s claims-to-fame, aside from the magnificence of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, is being the birthplace of the mighty Bristol...
Mairlyn Smith, a Canadian actress and cook, recently revealed on TikTok that she and her husband go for a walk after dinner to release their pent up...
It’s finally summer festival season – and the heat is on! Hopefully, the warm weather’s what you wanted – we all know it’s miserable...
Our lungs are the interface between blood and air. Their role in oxygenating our bloodstream is their primary function, and they bear the brunt of a...
In Greek mythology, the many-headed beast Hydra had such severe halitosis that the stench of its breath was deadly to anyone who smelled it....
Science presenter and journalist Dr Michael Mosley was well known not only for his expertise, energy and passion as a broadcaster but also for...
Muscles are biological powerhouses, capable of truly incredible feats. You only need to look at the world’s strongest man, capable of dead lifting...
Red and yellow and pink and green – your urine can sing a rainbow too. You may be surprised to find out it can be purple and orange and blue. And a...
As an anatomist, I’m often asked questions about nipples. What is the point of male nipples? Why are nipples considered an erogenous zone? Why,...
An ear is like an iceberg – much of it is out of sight. The only visible part is the auricle – the seashell shaped structure made of bendy...
Of all the body’s amazing abilities, perhaps one of the strangest is its capacity to make stones. Many will have heard of kidney or gallstones, and...
It’s a question of evolution and adaptation.
Navels, belly buttons, innies or outies … whatever term you use, your umbilicus may have plenty to tell you about the state of your health. For...
All the parts of our bodies share an inherent connectivity. This goes much further than “the foot bone’s connected to the … leg bone”. For...
From skin to hair, scabs and even tears, the external appearance of the body can offer clues about the state of your health. But there’s another...
A friend of mine, on a recent trip to the gym, declined to use the machine for drying his trunks – that gym equivalent of a salad spinner which...
From Hollywood waxes and vajazzles, to bleaching and piercing, there are seemingly endless ways to style the nether regions and attempt to create an...
The neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero announced in 2015 that he could soon be capable of performing the world’s first human head transplant procedure....
Although it always makes me scoff slightly to see Easter eggs making their first appearance in supermarkets at the end of December, there are few...
A friend of mine recently lost her security deposit at the holiday home she and her fellow hens were renting for a weekend. Why? Well, she dropped a...
Hair speaks volumes. The way we cut, style and colour often acts as a representation of who we are. But hair is more than just aesthetic. It also has...
Our skin is often covered with tiny imperfections – blemishes, moles, cuts and spots that we’re all guilty of picking at from time to time....
I first became aware of the notion of the “touch of death” as a teenager – after watching Uma Thurman as the Bride finally kill Bill using the...
Dry scalp? Blocked ears? Crusted eyes? Our bodies produce many different unusual, sometimes repellent secretions, and their function doesn’t always...
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All you need is love. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. If cliches and pop...
Skin accounts for around 15% of our body mass. It is the largest and most visible organ in the human body. Yet many of the skin’s functions are...