Here’s an experiment: try going fifteen minutes without using your thumbs. Bet you can’t do it. We may not give them a second thought, but life would be very difficult without th… Read More

 Think back to the funerals you’ve attended, particularly the open casket affairs. Do you remember details of the deceased? Their expression, the tone of their skin, the contours… Read More

God, I love hockey. As you may have read in November’s Size Matters, I’m a devoted hockey fan. (Go Lightning!)  I love the speed, the strength, and the beautiful biomec… Read More

There's nothing more striking than well-defined muscle. The firm bulge of biceps, the ropey thickness of quads, the ravishing ripples of six-pack abs. Few things compare to the beauty of lea… Read More

This morning on the radio, I heard one of my favorite songs, Edwin McCain’s I’ll Be, which has a great line in it: "I’ll be better when I’m older…"  It go… Read More

Is there anything more annoying than a vegan? Since when did eating a chunk of cheese spell the demise of civilization? Don’t get me wrong, I stand with the v’s on their animal r… Read More

In the mood for a revelation? Ask firefighters how they feel about fire. Their response may surprise you. Firefighters spend their entire careers laying their lives on the line. Whether they… Read More

If you had to name your favorite bone, which would it be? (Perverts, keep your response to yourself.) I’m betting most of you would name the skull. Let’s face it, when we think o… Read More

At some point in our lives, each of us will have the urge to strike another human being. Ironically, for me, that moment occurred when I was attending a symposium on the evolution of ethics… Read More

If you’ve ever had to hunt for a parking space on a college campus, you know what a hellish nightmare it can be. The other day, I scored a primo spot, tucked beneath the shade of a gia… Read More

Americans sure love their guns. Nothing says the “US of A” like the stars and stripes, Mom’s apple pie, and Smith & Wesson. The latest tally boasts around three hundred… Read More

This may sound preposterous, but long before I became an archaeologist and, before that, a firefighter, I dreamt of being a model. Like many teens, I devoured the fashion magazines – V… Read More

I want you to take a moment and imagine a beautiful human. Since this blog is read around the world, I’m betting the range of faces that come to mind is staggering. That’s becaus… Read More

Back when I was a new paramedic, I worked at a Level 1 trauma center. As an inexperienced medic, I was relegated to the most menial of tasks: drawing blood, monitoring vital signs, and patro… Read More

As a natural extension of last week’s piece on circumcision, I’ve found myself thinking about decapitation. During my years as a medic, I never had the opportunity to see a decap… Read More

I grew up the daughter of a bald man. The funny thing is, I didn’t realize he was bald until one of my elementary schoolmates pointed it out. To me, he was just “Dad.” His… Read More

Imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to be attached to another human being. Think about it… every day, every night, every moment spent linked to another person. I’ve alw… Read More

It happens as it always does, whenever I pass through that particular intersection. As I cross the lanes of traffic, I think about the dead girl.I’m in Orlando for the weekend, visitin… Read More

Here’s a thought: if the sperm that created you had come in second in the race to the egg, you would be an entirely different person. Think about it. Among the million or so sperm vyin… Read More

This morning, on my way to my car, I walked through a gargantuan spiderweb. A diligent arachnid had been hard at work, industriously spinning his beautiful web, only to have some bumbling hu… Read More

No exploration of the human body would be complete without a brief glimpse at that most ancient of professions, prostitution. How can we possibly explore the body without contemplating the s… Read More

Last week, we took a brief glimpse at the long and convoluted history of prostitution, so I thought it only natural to follow up with an infectious postscript. For as long as humans have bee… Read More

Last week, my body came under attack. In an ironic twist following last week’s post on contagious pathogens, I picked up a nasty bug that for the past seven days has wreaked havoc on m… Read More

If you had to list the things that scare you the most, what would your list include? Human fears run the gamutt, from the insignificant (spiders and heights) to those that haunt us in the we… Read More

In the two years since I’ve been writing this blog, we’ve explored just about every aspect of our anatomy, from the beautiful intricacies of its form and function to the bizarre… Read More