Anatomy, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2006

The Most Dangerous Sports in America

Many moms might worry about their kids getting hurt playing football, but a new study shows that playing basketball and riding bicycles sent more Americans to the emergency room in 2005. More than half a million people suffered basketball-related injuries last year, compared to 485,000 hurt on bikes and 418,000...

Feb 29, 2016

Muscular System: Facts, Functions & Diseases

While most people associate muscles with strength, they do more than assist in lifting heavy objects. The 650 muscles in the body not only support movement — controlling walking, talking, sitting, standing, eating and other daily functions that people consciously perform — but also help to maintain posture and circulate...

Jul 31, 2017

You Thought Your Braces Hurt? This Woman's Dental Wire Tore Through Her Gut

Most people who get their braces off are happy to forget about their years of dental train tracks. But one woman in Australia had her braces come back to haunt her when doctors discovered a piece of dental wire tearing through her abdomen, according to a new report. The wire...

Feb 28, 2017

Why One Woman Had Oil in Her Lung for Decades

An elderly woman in Florida had oil in her lungs — for decades — from a now-outdated procedure she received in her 20s to treat tuberculosis (TB), according to a new report of the woman's case. The 86-year-old woman went to the doctor because of a burning pain in her...

Apr 30, 2018

Adenoids: Facts, Function & Treatment

Adenoids are tonsils, but not all tonsils are adenoids. There are three types of tonsils in the lymphatic system. The pharyngeal tonsils are commonly known as adenoids, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. They provide protection against infections and flush away unwanted particles. Location, description and functionAdenoids are clusters of lymphatic tissue...

May 3, 2018

This Man Went 5 Days with a Chicken Bone Stuck in His Lung

It really did go down the wrong pipe: A striking new image shows a chicken bone lodged in an Australian man's lung. What's more, the bone was stuck there for five days before it was discovered. The 78-year-old man initially went to the emergency room right after he choked while...

May 9, 2018

Thymus: Facts, Function & Diseases

Though the thymus is a little-known organ in the body, it does some very important things. It is part of the lymphatic system, along with the tonsils, adenoids and spleen, and it's also part of the endocrine system. FunctionThe thymus produces progenitor cells, which mature into T-cells (thymus-derived cells). The...

May 10, 2018

How Did This Soldier 'Grow' an Ear on Her Forearm?

Army Pvt. Shamika Burrage's left ear is unlike other ears, though you might not realize it at first. Like her right ear, it is made from Burrage's own cells, and connected to her head by her own blood vessels. She can hear perfectly well out of it, and feel perfectly...

Jul 10, 2018

Why Do Teeth Turn Yellow?

While celebrities and models may sport pearly white teeth, the smiles of most people are a tad duller. But this shouldn't be too surprising. Many things can affect the color of your teeth and turn them that dreaded yellow hue, which may make some people feel self-conscious about their appearance...

Aug 7, 2018

Baby Born with Itty, Bitty Tooth … Which a Dentist Promptly Pulled

A newborn in England surprised her parents — and her doctors — when they saw that the infant was born with a tiny tooth, according to news reports. The tooth was wobbly, so when little Isla-Rose Heasman was just 12 days old, her mother took her to a dentist, who...

Oct 7, 2018

A Man Took Antibiotics Before Going to the Dentist. He Developed An Ultra-Rare Brain Side Effect

SAN FRANCISCO — As scary as it may sound, a root canal is a fairly routine dental procedure. But for one 60-year-old man, the procedure turned life threatening when he developed meningitis, a swelling of the tissue surrounding his brain and spinal cord. Even more surprising, though, was that this...

Oct 22, 2018

Skin: The Human Body's Largest Organ

Skin is the body's largest organ and, along with hair, nails, and skin-associated nerves and glands, is part of the integumentary system, according to the medical resource StatPearls. This system acts as a protective barrier between the external environment and the inside of the body, shielding the internal organs against...

Aug 8, 2019

The Human Skeletal System

The human skeletal system is not quite as simple as the popular children's song suggests. The head bone (actually made up of 22 separate bones) is not connected to the neck bone, but rather to a series of small bones that go all the way down the back. And the...

Jan 11, 2020

Has the Average Human Body Temperature Always Been the Same?

98.6. Why does that number ring a bell? For years, the figure has held an important place in hospital rooms and physiology textbooks: 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) is widely considered to be the normal average human body temperature. But is this temperature still accurate? New research suggests the...

Jan 26, 2020

Why are teeth so sensitive to pain?

You might think of your teeth as tools, like built-in knives and forks. But if they are so utilitarian, why do teeth feel pain? Wouldn't it be better if they could just gnash and gnaw under any conditions? In spite of our dental discomfort, it turns out there's a good...