HowStuffWorks Newsletter
The human body is an amazing structure made up of many fascinating parts and systems. Learn about the human body and how its systems work together.
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The Fugates and the Combs families in rural Kentucky lost the genetic lottery, both sharing a rare recessive trait that made their skin look blue as they intermarried. What was the cause of this? And what happened to the families?
By Dave Roos
Stanford researchers have developed a new white cane, incorporating sensing and wayfinding approaches from robotics and self-driving vehicles. Could this new white cane reshape life for the visually impaired?
Parosmia is a post-COVID-19 side effect that distorts your sense of taste and smell. But smell training (you read that right) can help most people get things back on track.
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Technology for hearing aids has advanced drastically since our grandparents wore those big, bulky ones wrapped around their ears. Now they're Bluetooth-enabled and can even translate foreign languages on the fly.
Deaths from cases of the flu have dropped a staggering amount during the 2020-2021 flu season, even while cases of COVID-19 soared. What does that mean and what can we learn for the future?
Does feeling sick after you get the vaccine mean your immune system is responding? What if you don't feel sick? Does that mean it's not?
Does using a bathroom other than your own freak you out? The Faux Fan drowns out the sounds your body makes when you have to, well, go, so you can poop without worrying people will hear.
By Meg Sparwath
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Empty nose syndrome is a rare problem where patients have clear nasal passages but constant sensations of being unable to breathe. And worst of all, many doctors believe it's all in their heads.
Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain unexplained extraordinary abilities, such as playing music or remembering prodigious amounts of information.
It's the organ commonly found in animals where multiple body systems come together into one opening for both defecation and reproduction. But in humans, having a cloaca causes huge problems.
By Alia Hoyt
We've probably all been breathing wrong our entire lives. Why is that? Experts suggest we should focus on breathing through our noses and most of us don't.
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There are eight major blood types and some are more common than others. But what's the rarest of them all?
The human voice, including both pitch and volume, is created here as air travels through the vocal cords, but it can change based on the position of the tongue, lips, mouth and pharynx.
Getting a bloody nose is nasty and can be also be pretty scary if you can't stop it. So what's the fastest — and safest — way to get your nose to stop bleeding?
Proprioception refers to our ability to perceive our body's position and how we move through space. It's often considered our sixth sense because we do it without thinking about it.
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Blue light glasses are super popular these days. But do they work the way marketers promise?
You probably remember the jingle from kindergarten...the shin bone's connected to the, wait, what bone is it?
The Golgi apparatus is the mail room of the cell, packaging up proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum and sending them to their final destinations.
Although the inability to picture things in your head would seem to be a hinderance, some experts say it's definitely not a creativity killer and actually can have some advantages.
By Alia Hoyt
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A low oxygen level in your blood is a good indicator of a COVID-19 infection, but what exactly does that mean and how do doctors test for it?
We're all hearing the words 'antibody' and 'antibody testing' way more than we ever thought we would in the normal course of a day, so what exactly are we talking about?
Cytokine storm syndrome can turn a normally functioning immune system into an enemy more dangerous than the virus it's trying to dispatch.
Maybe you've never even thought about it when you've smelled — or emitted — a particularly odoriferous fart. But can that fart spread disease?
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You almost never notice the way your own place smells. Why is that?
'Emma' is the hard-to-ignore embodiment of what years behind a desk could do to your body. She's hunched over, has bad skin and even varicose veins. Don't become Emma.