Digestive System

The bladder and the brain are involved in determining when we need to urinate.

How Do We Know When to Pee?

The basic urge is surprisingly complex and can go awry as we age

Saliva impacts how different foods taste.

How Saliva Changes the Flavor of Food

The liquid impacts how we perceive taste and can influence what we choose to eat

A 3D image of the spiral-shaped intestine of a Pacific spiny dogfish shark. In life, food would move through this intestine left to right.

Sharks' Intestines Spiral Like a Valve Invented by Nikola Tesla

Tesla's ingenious valve promoted a one-way flow of fluid without the need for moving parts, but, it turns out, evolution got there first

Scientists suspect that the wombat evolved this unique trait to mark its territory on rocks and logs with poop that won’t easily roll off

Wombats Poop Cubes, and Scientists Finally Got to the Bottom of It

The marsupial’s unique digestive tract forms square dung

The tough little egg made it all the way through the digestive system of a coscoroba swan like this one.

A Swan Swallowed This Fish Egg, Pooped It Out—and Then 49 Days Later, It Hatched

The new study is one of the first to demonstrate fish egg dispersal via avian fecal matter

Why Wombats Make Cube-Shaped Poos

New research shows differences in elasticity in the intestines shapes the poo as it moves through

The gut flora of dogs and humans is incredibly similar, a new study finds.

A Surprising Way Dogs Are Similar to Humans

We share more than snuggles and and a love of walks; canines and humans have similar gut microbiota

Human evolution is ongoing, and what we eat is a crucial part of the puzzle.

How Cheese, Wheat and Alcohol Shaped Human Evolution

Over time, diet causes dramatic changes to our anatomy, immune systems and maybe skin color

To find the roots of an unlikely connection, researchers are untangling lemur microbiomes. Here, ring-tailed lemurs feast at Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Germany.

What Lemur Guts Can Tell Us About Human Bowel Disease

Similarities between us and the cuddly primates could help us understand the origins of human illnesses—and treat them

Taste receptors for salty, sweet, bitter and sour are found all over the tongue.

The Taste Map of the Tongue You Learned in School Is All Wrong

Modern biology shows that taste receptors aren't nearly as simple as that cordoned-off model would lead you to believe

From the tiniest to the most massive of poos, physics predicts we should all spend the same amount of time on the john.

A Grand Unified Theory of Pooping

Why you and an elephant spend the same amount of time on the john

Why Coffee Makes Some People Poop

It's not the caffeine

One group of scientists says that they've figured out a way to make rice with fewer calories.

Why Would Cooling Rice Make it Less Caloric?

Scientists suggest a new way to prepare rice that they say could help slow the worldwide obesity epidemic

This artificial ear was made on a 3D printer.

7 Medical Advances to Watch in 2014

These breakthroughs range from making body parts on a 3D printer to getting the body to fight cancer on its own

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