Anatomy

The human gut is filled with trillions of microbes.

The Benefits of Probiotics Might Not Be So Clear Cut

An individual's natural gut bacteria determine whether the so-called dietary supplements help or do nothing at all

Before she tackled tuberculosis, Sabin helped rethink the lymphatic system and wrote an acclaimed anatomy textbook.

Florence Sabin Pioneered Her Way in Medical Science, Then Made Sure Other Women Could Do the Same

A scientist and so much more, she helped lay the groundwork for curing tuberculosis but still found time to promote women doctors

The foot bones of an Australopithecus Afarensis toddler show that the species retained some ape-like traits.

Ancient Toddler Was at Home on the Ground and in the Trees

The foot of a 2.5-year-old Austrolopithecus afarensis shows it had a grippy big toe that let it cling to its mom and climb tree trunks

Researchers studied delicate hyoid bones, which support and ground the tongue, in fossils like these from Northeast China.

Actually, T. Rex Probably Couldn't Stick Out Its Tongue

The tongues of bird-like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, however, may have been more mobile

A whale with water gushing out of its blowhole would not be smiling. It would be drowning.

How Children's Books Reveal Our Evolving Relationship With Whales

Storybooks feature a fair amount of factual errors—and those errors can be revealing

Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-1774), Italian anatomist and sculptor, from a drawing by Cesare Bettini.

The Lady Anatomist Who Brought Dead Bodies to Light

Anna Morandi was the brains and the skilled hand of an unusual husband-wife partnership

Sliver of Saint’s Brain Stolen From Italian Basilica

Police are looking for the person or persons who swiped the sacred relic from the Don Bosco Basilica

Leeuwenhoek's early microscopic observations of rabbit sperm (figs. 1-4) and dog sperm (figs. 5-8).

The Long, Winding Tale of Sperm Science

...and why it's finally headed in the right direction

This spine is the earliest intact reference for how humans' skeletons may have developed.

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us

Analysis of the ancient spine reveals tantalizing similarities—and questions about human evolution

Homo floresiensis

The "Hobbits" Could Be Much Older Than Once Thought

The Flores hobbits' ancestor may have ventured out of Africa much earlier than previously thought

Morbid Anatomy Museum Closes Its Doors

But the museum that delights in the dead will have an afterlife

A fetal skull that was dissected in the 1800s, originally held in the University of Cambridge Anatomy Museum.

How Fetus Dissections in the Victorian Era Helped Shape Today’s Abortion Wars

Besides teaching us about disease and human development, they molded modern attitudes of the fetus as distinct entity from the mother

Scarlet tanager

Where Red Birds Get Their Vibrant Hues

Two studies identify the same gene that makes red birds crimson—and perhaps helps them shed toxins, too

How Forensic Scientists Once Tried to "See" a Dead Person's Last Sight

Scientists once believed that the dead's last sight could be resolved from their extracted eyeballs

Measuring human skulls in physical anthropology

When Museums Rushed to Fill Their Rooms With Bones

In part fed by discredited and racist theories about race, scientists and amateurs alike looked to human remains to learn more about themselves

Artist Gary Staab and his team spent roughly 2,000 hours over five months to create the first of three models.

An Artist Creates a Detailed Replica of Ötzi, the 5,300-Year-Old "Iceman"

Museum artist Gary Staab discusses the art and science of constructing exhibition pieces

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit in The Walk

What Happens to Your Body When You Walk on a Tightrope?

It's more than just an insane amount of courage that gets people on the tightwire

Here’s Why Some People Have More Bellybutton Lint Than Others

The secret is on your stomach

Screenshot from the "Multi-scale Multi-physics Heart Simulator UT-Heart" video

Travel Inside a Human Heart With This Video

An informative video shows off a research team’s simulation of the beating heart

This shot of a statue from the Louvre is one of the least-shocking anus-related image we came up with.

Science Is Still Unclear About the Evolutionary Origin of the Anus

A newly published scientific review attempts to “get to the bottom” of how animals acquired what some might call the most indecent part of the body

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