THE BODY
Does Drinking Alcohol Really Keep You Warm When It's Cold Out?
Alcohol is a vasodilator. When you have a drink, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warm.
Can People Really Smell Fear?
Fictional characters, and even real-life folks, often talk about animals and people—particularly snarling dogs and knife-wielding lunatics—being able to “smell fear” on people. No one ever seems to be able to describe just what fear smells like, though.
Can Bacteria and Viruses Get Sick?
Tis the season to be getting the cold and flu. But is it possible for the bacteria and viruses that infect us so easily to get sick themselves?In 1917, a microbiologist working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris discovered what he described as an invisible
What Causes Morning Sickness?
Buckingham Palace has confirmed what the British tabloids have suspected for a while: The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting. Unfortunately, Kate has also been admitted to the hospital due to hyperemesis gravidarum, or acute morning sickness—so severe that
Why Does Skin Get Pruney in the Tub?
For a long time, scientists thought that pruning of the skin after spending time in the water was simply a matter of fingers being a little spongey. The outermost layer (the stratum corneum) of the outermost layer (the epidermis) of our skin is mostly mad
How Do Blood Pressure Tests Work, And What Do Those Numbers Mean?
Getting your blood pressure taken is a standard part of most visits to the doctor, but the details might seem mysterious—so read on.What It IsBlood pressure (BP) is the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of the arteries as it's pumped from th
What is Rubella?
Rubella Virus. Wikimedia CommonsAlmost everyone is familiar with the measles and mumps, but the 'R' in the MMR vaccine might not ring a bell. Here's the lowdown.Discovery and SymptomsRubella is a disease caused by a virus of the same name. It can be sprea
Why Is Cranberry Juice Good For UTIs?
A mental_floss staffer who shall remain nameless asks, “Why is cranberry juice good for treating UTIs? I will not tell you why this question had been on my mind.”Bacterial infections in the urinary tract and its organs are pretty common, especially in adu
How Do Tongue Twisters Twist The Tongue?
Try and say “she sells sea shells by the sea shore” three times very fast. The first time might go alright, but on the second or third go-round, chances are the words start to degrade as you’re saying them, falling apart in your mouth like a crumbling Jen
Why Do We Crave Chocolate?
If you’re like most people, you simply can’t pass up the opportunity to partake in a piece of chocolate (or five).
Are Carrots Really That Good For Your Eyes?
When I was a kid, my parents often tried to sell me on the idea that carrots were good for my eyes—and if I wanted to avoid vision correction in the future, I would eat them now. But after I was fitted for my first pair of glasses in fourth grade, they dr
Why Do We Have Fingerprints?
Though fingerprints are handy for identifying perps, biologically, scientists still aren't quite sure what our fingerprints are for. But as they test different hypotheses, they're getting closer to the answer—and learning some pretty cool stuff in the pro
Why Does Alcohol Cause the Spins?
You lie down to get some sleep after a long night of drinking, and the room seems to be spinning uncontrollably. Why does this happen?
Why Can You Taste Your Eye Drops?
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.
Why Does Bad Weather Aggravate Old Injuries?
Reader Jen wrote in to ask, “Why do old injuries ache during crummy ache during crummy weather?" The idea that certain aches and pains correspond with, and can even predict, the weather is widespread, and has been around since at least the days of ancient
How Does Aspirin Help During a Heart Attack?
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 m
Does Peeing on a Jellyfish Sting Actually Help?
Whatever the variables, a sting is never exactly pleasant. Urine is often no good. Sure, urine contains salts, but it's just too variable.
What Causes Eye Floaters?
Eye floaters—or 'muscae volitantes,' Latin for 'hovering flies'—are those tiny, oddly shaped objects that sometimes appear in your vision, most often when you’re looking at the sky on a sunny day.
Why Does Getting Hit in the Testicles Hurt So Much?
More than any other bodily injury, getting hit in the testicles is probably what every man dreads most. Of all the soft, fleshy spots on the human body, none register the same kind of incapacitating, end-of-the-world pain as the family jewels.
Why Do People Feel Phantom Cellphone Vibrations?
Let’s picture a typical moment in my day: I’m minding my own business, with my iPhone in my back pocket. Suddenly, my left cheek is shaking as the phone vibrates and does the bzzt, bzzt, bzzt-ing dance of its people on my backside. I check the phone, and
Why Do Beans Make You Fart?
The sugars in beans are far too big to slip though the intestinal wall on their own, and our guts’ enzymatic tool kit doesn’t have the right stuff to break the big things apart into more manageable pieces.
Does Being Cold Make You More Susceptible to Getting a Cold?
Sledding image via Shutterstock“Put a jacket on if you’re going out there, or you’ll catch a cold.”It’s a common refrain of grandmothers all over the world. Are they right, though? Do low temperatures have anything to do with catching the common cold? Mos
If You Can’t Smell, Can You Taste?
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.