Uvula image via ShutterstockThe uvula is one of the weirdest looking features of the human body. Yet despite its infamy, scientists have spent centuries puzzling over its function.The hangy ball's full name is the “palatine uvula,” referring to its location on your soft palate. Not to be confused with the uvula vermis, a lobe of the cerebellum, or the uvula vesicae, in the urinary bladder. Through history, scientists have had many theories about the uvula. Among... READ ON

Baked beans image via ShutterstockBeans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot. But don't blame your flatulence on the poor legumes directly. The blame lies instead with the loads of little critters teeming in your gut.Once you mash a bowl of barbecue baked beans into a fine mush in your mouth and stomach, it moves along to the small intestine. This organ is basically a molecular chop shop, where digestive enzymes strip your meal down for whatever bits and pieces your body... READ ON

Smelling image via ShutterstockI’m perfectly suited to answer the Big Question that reader Katie posed the other day, because I have anosmia, which means I can’t smell. At all. Every diaper my two-year-old has ever filled has been totally odorless to me. I also missed out on her new baby smell, which I hear is pretty fantastic. I can’t tell if I come back to work still stinky from a lunchtime run, which often concerns me, but other people’s B.O. doesn’t bother me either. I’m never tempted... READ ON

Paper cut image via ShutterstockThere are a couple things at play here, some involving the paper, some involving your skin.For one thing, what part of your body comes in contact with paper the most? Right, the majority of paper cuts happen on the fingers and hands. Your hands are pretty complex sensory instruments, and they’re absolutely jam-packed with nerve fibers called nociceptors. These guys sense temperature, pressure and pain, and there are more of them per square inch in your hands and... READ ON