This story is part of a series exploring human anatomy and physiology complexities. Each story in this collection showcases discoveries reshaping our understanding of the body's inner workings, ...

The intestines work by absorbing nutrients and vitamins. They are part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Together, the small and large intestines run from the end of the stomach to the anus. In this ...

Tourists visiting an unfamiliar city would have a hard time finding their way around if they were using nothing but a topological map, no matter how detailed. Most tourist maps, therefore, highlight ...

The gut microbiome is an important ecosystem of microbes that lives in each one of us, and its strength affects our overall health. However, the small intestine is an underappreciated part of the gut ...

The US humorist Christopher Morley once described the human body as “an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing”. He wasn’t wrong: from our cardiovascular and lymphatic systems to our guts and urinary ...