HowStuffWorks Newsletter
From the smallest microbe to the largest mammal, Life Science explores the origins, evolution and expansion of life in all its forms. Explore a wide range of topics from biology to genetics and evolution.
Topics to Explore:
The question of exactly what is human consciousness and how it came to be in the human mind has raged forever between philosophers, religious scholars and scientists, but does the theory of the bicameral mind explain it?
By Robert Lamb
Erosion and weather can combine to make rock formations look like all kinds of things, from human faces to animals. They're called mimetoliths and we've taken a look at four of the most famous.
Do we owe the emergence of language and self-reflection to the ancient and sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms?
By Robert Lamb
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Organisms not related to each other can develop similar physical attributes without even exchanging notes.
We see faces in clouds, on buildings — heck, in grilled cheese sandwiches. But why is that? And how is this a help to our survival?
By Dave Roos
Niels Bohr proposed the model of the atom that we still learn in school today, even though it's technically incorrect.
We are who we are because of the genes our parents pass to us, but what happens when both parents contribute the same version of a specific gene?
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This new form of sound therapy takes advantage of the fact that a different frequency in each ear yields a third frequency that can allegedly calm you down or improve your focus. Does it really work? Our writer tried it out.
By Alia Hoyt
Nitrogen is essential to living things, but it also plays hard to get.
Ever feel like others are out to get you, or that you're in danger even though there's no clear threat? Is this normal in today's crazy world or is paranoia creeping in?
Centrioles are spindles that create the pathways for chromosomes to follow during cell division.
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Heuristics are rule-of-thumb strategies that help us shorten decision-making time and solve problems quickly and effortlessly.
Phrenology, the belief that you could determine personality from the shape of someone's skull, was so popular in the Victorian era that phrenology parlors sprang up all over Europe and America. But the trend was soon debunked.
Autumn rolls out its very own red carpet to make a fashionable arrival. So why do falling leaves change colors to vibrant hues of crimson, yellow and orange?
Whether you're a procrastinator or a workaholic, you can improve your time management. How? With a timer, scheduled breaks and some serious discipline.
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The Kobayashi Maru simulation puts future Starfleet commanders in a classic "no-win" scenario. It's so accurate, even the U.S. military uses the exercise to test the measure of a good leader.
By Mark Mancini
It's one of those words that might remind you of certain gender-bending musicians from the '80s, but what does it mean today?
With cemetery space at a premium and the increasingly evident environmental drawbacks to traditional burial, what better way to memorialize your beloved pet, or a beloved person, than to turn their remains into a tree?
Cute little balls of moss, called glacier mice, have been known to move up to an inch a day, all at the same time, like a herd of mice, but how and why?
By Katie Carman
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The part of your cells that helps you recover from a hangover is shaped like a maze of tubes and is made of two parts — the rough endoplasmic reticulum and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum.
Commensalism is a form of cooperation among species in which one species benefits from another without the first one suffering any harm from the relationship.
Ashwagandha, sometimes called Indian ginseng or Indian winter cherry, is one of the most prized herbs in the Indian Ayurvedic science of life.
By Katie Carman
Most people throughout the world are right-handed. So can they teach themselves to use their left hands, too and become ambidextrous?
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Prokaryotic cells are like single-room efficiency apartments while eukaryotic cells are like mansions with many rooms — and they are the only two kinds of cells in the world.
Found along beaches and in the mangrove swamps of tropical climates, the fruit of the manchineel tree was called the 'little apple of death' by Spanish conquistadors.
By Katie Carman