You lie down to get some sleep after a long night of drinking, and the room seems to be spinning uncontrollably. What... READ ON

A friend of mine recently got pinkeye. Whenever she put in her eye drops, she noticed a distinct and very unpleasant taste on the back of her tongue. What’s up with... READ ON

The heart is the most important muscle in the body, so it seems like something of a marketing ploy by the folks at Bayer to suggest that something so simple as a humble aspirin tablet can be of any use when this life-sustaining organ goes into epic fail mode. But it’s true: next to calling 911 immediately, taking an aspirin is one of your best bets when it comes to surviving a cardiac event. As Ben Affleck once said in a shampoo commercial, here comes the science.We all have platelets in our blood... READ ON

The sting of a jellyfish comes from specialized cells in the surface of its tentacles called cnidocytes. Each small, bulb-shaped cell holds a barbed, threadlike tube, called a nematocyst, filled with venom. On the outside of each cell is a tiny hair called a cnicocil. When this “hair trigger” is disturbed, the cell’s toxic harpoon explodes from its capsule and into the skin of the jellyfish’s prey, or an unlucky... READ ON