When it comes to killer diseases, you will be hard-pressed to find anything more lethal than rabies. Tens of thousands of people contract the disease each year. Once the symptoms begin to […]
Rabies — 100% Fatal and 100% Preventable
Bad Handwriting Responsible for Up to 61% of Prescription Errors
It is a standing joke that physicians have horrible handwriting. It turns out this may not be such a laughing matter. A number of studies have found that sloppy handwriting is just […]
The Medicine Worked Fine… Until the Patient’s Jaw Fell Off
Feeling rundown? Suffering from headaches? How about anemia? Diabetes? Asthma? Whatever it is that is making you feel under the weather, Radithor may be just what you need. What’s that you say? […]
How Lawrence of Arabia’s Death Led to the Use of the Crash Helmet?
T.E. Lawrence, known around the world as “Lawrence of Arabia,” died on May 19, 1935. His death, 6 days after a tragic motorcycle accident, seemed an inglorious end to the life of […]
Naturally Protected
95% of all people have a natural immunity to leprosy. source
Forget “An Arm and a Leg” — Here’s The Really Expensive Stuff
We refer to something outlandishly expensive as “costing an arm and a leg.” Perhaps a better comparison would be the cost of a unit of blood.
A Smile So Sharp It Will Split Atoms
From 1940 to 1945, if you wanted to acquire radioactive material in Germany, you didn’t have to engage in cloak-and-dagger shenanigans; you simply had to go to the nearest pharmacy and purchase […]
Pucker Up and Kiss Your Allergies Goodbye
Countless songs, poems, and dramatic works have been written about the power of a kiss. You may have been unaware of one of the additional benefits of the exercise: allergy reduction. Dr. […]
Gunshot Wound? Don’t Worry, Son… I’m Sure There’s An App for That
Every child believes his or her mom can fix every boo-boo. Sometimes that faith can be misplaced. Consider the case of the 14-year-old son of Deborah Tagle, who received a gunshot wound […]
The Doctor Who Had a 300% Fatality Rate
In the days before anesthesia, speed was at least as important as accuracy when doctors were performing surgery. The longer a patient had to endure the pain of being cut open and […]
What’s that Condition Called? It’s on the Tip of My Tongue
About 3-5 percent of people have a harmless condition known as “geographic tongue.” It is caused by uneven distribution of papillae (short, fine, hair-like projections) over the surface of the tongue which […]
Take Some Mummy Powder, A Few Drops of Gladiator Blood, and Call Me in the Morning
Mellified Man: Take one male volunteer aged 70 or 80, and bathe him and feed him with nothing but honey. Upon his death (usually within a month), seal him in a coffin […]
First Make People Laugh; Then Make Them Think
The “Ig Nobel Prizes” are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They are presented by […]
Turn Baby Mice Whines into Baby Mice Wine
If you like mice — particularly the baby kind — you might enjoy the traditional drink in China and Korea: baby mice wine. Manufacturers take baby mice from their mothers before they […]
An “Irregular” Fact About Mark Twain
Nikola Tesla once “shook the poop out” of a constipated Mark Twain with an experiment. One famous legend surrounding the eccentric Tesla was that he had an earthquake machine in his Manhattan […]
