Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey everybody, welcome to Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind. I'm Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
Speaker 1: tell me, Julie, do you have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in your house? Would you say you were a hoarder? Mm?
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would say that I'm a hoarder.
Speaker 1: But I do surprise myself when I opened the closets
Speaker 1: and I think, oh my god, what is what is
Speaker 1: all that stuff? Yeah, because it's like, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I'm that bad either. Um My
Speaker 1: wife is a very good influence on me because she'll
Speaker 1: throw things away at the drop of a hat, you know, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: and uh and so that that cuts down in the clutter.
Speaker 1: But still it's easy to be like, oh, I got
Speaker 1: a new phone, I should keep this old phone because
Speaker 1: who knows the new one could break. I might need
Speaker 1: to fall back on this one, or you know, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh, I don't have time for this
Speaker 1: hobby anymore, but maybe I will someday. So I should
Speaker 1: just I shouldn't throw it away or sell it or
Speaker 1: give it away. I should just put in the attic
Speaker 1: for a little while. Yeah, yeah, that's how I feel
Speaker 1: at my thigh master. I might use that one day
Speaker 1: as a weapon or yes, definitely as a weapon. You
Speaker 1: never know, it could be I think it could be
Speaker 1: retrofitting look into a small um you know, caliber catapult,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, some sort
Speaker 1: of sling device. Yeah, yeah, but again it's a slippery
Speaker 1: slope before you know it. It's like the the house
Speaker 1: that that that I'm that we're in now that I
Speaker 1: my wife and I bought that. When we first got
Speaker 1: it was just loaded with stuff like three Christmas trees
Speaker 1: in the attic, that kind of thing, you know, because
Speaker 1: the whole mindset can just go crazy. But what's interesting
Speaker 1: is that when you look to uh nature, when you
Speaker 1: look to evolution, you see a similar kind of hoarding
Speaker 1: going on, or maybe not outright hoarding, but definitely hanging
Speaker 1: on to things that that there's not really a use
Speaker 1: for it anymore. A genetic hoarding, yeah, genetic and even
Speaker 1: like just physiological hoarding. We're of course talking about vestigiality, um,
Speaker 1: the occurrence of this vestigial organs, vestigial limbs, vestigial body parts, uh,
Speaker 1: in all animals, but particularly in humans. Okay, And so
Speaker 1: I'm thinking right off the bat, like I've heard about
Speaker 1: whales with hip bones or leg bones. Yeah. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: look at like a skeleton of a whale, and you know,
Speaker 1: the head is very very pronounced. You know, all the
Speaker 1: skeletal system is clearly really important, except for this like
Speaker 1: a little pelvic area and these little like the remnants
Speaker 1: of hind legs that just haven't been used in forever.
Speaker 1: But it's if the it's as if the whale's body
Speaker 1: on some like kind a very basic level, is like, well,
Speaker 1: who knows, we might need to grow those legs out someday,
Speaker 1: we might go back to land. We've done it before,
Speaker 1: so we'll just we'll just keep this much around. Huh.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of a law of probability thing going
Speaker 1: on in nature. Yeah. That's the thing that keeps coming
Speaker 1: back to me, is is we were looking at I mean,
Speaker 1: on one hand, these are souvenirs of an evolutionary past.
Speaker 1: You know, they're their pieces that no longer serve either
Speaker 1: they don't serve a purpose anymore, or they don't serve
Speaker 1: the purpose they were intended for. But there's and there's
Speaker 1: and there's also a sense that evolution is kind of lazy,
Speaker 1: that it's not going to you know, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: fix anything that's not broken. Uh. But it also it
Speaker 1: doesn't just throw something out in the same way that
Speaker 1: like an animal doesn't say, just suddenly grow an entirely
Speaker 1: new limb for some new purpose. You know it. You
Speaker 1: know it's ay, a small badger animal at some point
Speaker 1: in the you know, the primeval past needed to get
Speaker 1: inside a log to eat a grub. It wouldn't like
Speaker 1: grow like a fifth um grub grabbing instrument, you know
Speaker 1: it would it would like develop like a tongue that
Speaker 1: could reach in or nails that could could dig into
Speaker 1: the trunk. You know. It works with what it has.
Speaker 1: And and so it's like a similar the to ularity
Speaker 1: is is like a similar thing in reverse, it seems
Speaker 1: where um where it's like you don't if you don't
Speaker 1: need hind legs anymore, you don't just completely get rid
Speaker 1: of all the bones. You just sort of retract, you
Speaker 1: downsize that portion, but you didn't not to the point
Speaker 1: where you can't come back, okay. And so atavisms, which
Speaker 1: are really closely related to the vestigial organs and traits
Speaker 1: I think are pretty fascinating too, and they're a little
Speaker 1: bit different in that, Uh, an atavism is is basically
Speaker 1: a trait from like a distant, distant evolutionary ancestor. We're
Speaker 1: not talking about you know, you're a great great grandfather.
Speaker 1: We're talking like fifty years ago. Where um, that particular
Speaker 1: piece of DNA gets expressed again. And the thing that
Speaker 1: comes straight to mind the difference I guess between the
Speaker 1: vestigial and atavistic our babies that are born with tails,
Speaker 1: which is so crazy in the first place, Yes, actually happens.
Speaker 1: It's not just a nationally fire headline. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: it's not that boy with the tail. Um. So if
Speaker 1: you think about turkeys, which are flightless birds, and you
Speaker 1: see their wings, uh, those are of a stigial right, yes,
Speaker 1: because they're sort of imperfect versions of what they might
Speaker 1: have had when they were taking flight. Right. The ostrich
Speaker 1: is another example of that. Yeah. Yeah, And so if
Speaker 1: you look at a baby born with a tail, that's
Speaker 1: just sort of more of a evolutionary oddity. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and and kind of but kind of like as if
Speaker 1: suddenly like there was a turkey that had like of
Speaker 1: all the turkeys, like, suddenly there's a turkey that has
Speaker 1: like maybe larger wings. Kind of a deal because because
Speaker 1: it's not like the baby's growing a tail for balance
Speaker 1: but in it but in a prior evolutionary form, it
Speaker 1: would have needed a tail for balance. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: like perhaps there are prehensile um it was a prehensile
Speaker 1: tail that you could use to wrap around a tree
Speaker 1: limb to support yourself. Even so, I mean, they're there
Speaker 1: are different ways that a tail could have been used
Speaker 1: in evolution. But every once in a while there the
Speaker 1: ghosts just kind of like there's an on off switch
Speaker 1: with a dimmer in our genes, and over the years,
Speaker 1: you know, the evolutionary force decided, hey, we don't really
Speaker 1: need this tale anymore. Let's dim that down to the
Speaker 1: bare minimum. And uh, but then every now and then
Speaker 1: that the dimmer switch gets brought up just a little bit, right,
Speaker 1: And if you are unlucky enough to be born in
Speaker 1: the ninth century with a tale, well it just wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been good news for you. By the way, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to point that out. Your mother would have
Speaker 1: been branded a witch and you would both been disposed
Speaker 1: of because obviously a tale uh looks as though it's
Speaker 1: something from the dark arts or from the beast. There's
Speaker 1: some sort of a changeling left in the crib exactly.
Speaker 1: So that's that's one of the really interesting things about
Speaker 1: the sigil and ottavistic traits. I just don't behave the
Speaker 1: way that you think they're going to. Yeah, now, a
Speaker 1: lot of this, uh, it really comes out of the
Speaker 1: work of Charles Darwin. I mean not the actual traits
Speaker 1: and the actual appearance of things like tales et cetera.
Speaker 1: But but but our understanding of what these things are
Speaker 1: comes from from his one book, that is Sin of Man.
Speaker 1: And in this he identified about a dozen different anatomical
Speaker 1: features that he thought were useless, uh and that we
Speaker 1: don't use them the same way that other creatures do.
Speaker 1: So um. For Darwin, this is this was also proved
Speaker 1: that we we evolved from a primitive ancestors from primitive ancestors. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting. There's another guy that came after Darwin
Speaker 1: who like like he really took on, took hold of
Speaker 1: this idea and ran with And his name was Robert
Speaker 1: of Widersham and uh he was an anatomist, this is,
Speaker 1: and he put together a list that had like ninety
Speaker 1: different things on it, which which I find just amazing. Um.
Speaker 1: And and not to say that this was not a
Speaker 1: very learned guy. This guy was pretty This was a
Speaker 1: very bright guy. He was he was on the cutting
Speaker 1: edge of science, reported to note UM and he and
Speaker 1: he was just he was he was just very well,
Speaker 1: he was just a little ambitious maybe and just a
Speaker 1: little too eager to classify things. Uh. So you see
Speaker 1: this mentioned a lot, especially by people who want to
Speaker 1: UM want to defend say creationism against UM against evolution,
Speaker 1: because like people who are are proponents of evolutionary theory
Speaker 1: will often point out um the stigio, organs and limbs
Speaker 1: as as proof that that we've evolved and there's not
Speaker 1: some sort of divine forced dictating what a body looks like. Uh,
Speaker 1: but they'll they'll but a creationists will sometimes throw this back,
Speaker 1: like if you do a search for this guy's name
Speaker 1: on on the internet, you'll find pretty much nothing but
Speaker 1: but like random blog entries or message board posts attacking evolution.
Speaker 1: So what was the sort of the meat of his
Speaker 1: uh theory or the Well, well, that's the thing, the
Speaker 1: important something that's not really mentioned any of these lists
Speaker 1: is that the list itself is pretty particular. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's some like glaring things where he was like, people
Speaker 1: don't need three toes, the three in toes, like the
Speaker 1: pinky toe, and then the other two I forget which
Speaker 1: pigs those are, so the piggy that ate and the
Speaker 1: one that didn't and then the one that went. We
Speaker 1: we all the way home. Yeah, he was like, we
Speaker 1: don't need those guys. But it was the other stuff,
Speaker 1: like there's like there's the lumbar lit rib. A lot
Speaker 1: of things on this list are kind of in medical
Speaker 1: ease and I'm not really sure what they are, to
Speaker 1: be honest, but but it but it was very particular,
Speaker 1: and uh, and they were all things that he he
Speaker 1: said that they don't actually have a function in the body,
Speaker 1: and therefore they're just remnants of evolutionary past. Of course,
Speaker 1: over time we looked at it at more detail and
Speaker 1: we realized, oh, wait, well we actually do need this.
Speaker 1: This does serve a purpose. And I imagine anybody that's
Speaker 1: missing three toes on each foot would probably be able
Speaker 1: to tell you that it's it's not ideal. No, no,
Speaker 1: particularly in heels so let's let's go through some of these. Uh.
Speaker 1: These are the more common one because because the list
Speaker 1: is not ninety strong anymore, it's uh, they're really only
Speaker 1: a handful of really good examples, and and even some
Speaker 1: of those as we'll discuss. Um. You can go back
Speaker 1: and forth on So, um, wisdom teeth do you do?
Speaker 1: You have them? Yes? I well no I have one.
Speaker 1: Three have been extracted, and of course, like anyone, they
Speaker 1: are the ben of my existence. Um. And the interesting
Speaker 1: thing about wisdom teeth, I think is the moniker and
Speaker 1: it is so called wisdom teeth because they usually emerge
Speaker 1: between the ages of seventeen and twenty five, which I
Speaker 1: think back in the day was thought to be when
Speaker 1: you had gained a good amount of knowledge and you'd
Speaker 1: become wise. Of course, we know otherwise that the brain
Speaker 1: itself isn't even fully developed tell aged. But but I digress. Um,
Speaker 1: So wisdom teeth. There are a couple of different schools
Speaker 1: of thought on this, um why they're vestigial now. One
Speaker 1: is hygiene. Um, if you were living twenty thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: you certainly weren't brushing your teeth twice a day, and
Speaker 1: particularly not with floride. So, um, you're probably missing a
Speaker 1: good amount of your teeth by the time that you
Speaker 1: turned eighteen, which is probably I don't know about half
Speaker 1: of your lifespan anyway. So if you're really helpful, if
Speaker 1: you've got some wisdom teeth in kind of got an
Speaker 1: upgrade your chompers. So that's one theory. Wow. So that
Speaker 1: so basically by the time your wisdom teeth came in, uh,
Speaker 1: some of your other teeth would be ready to go.
Speaker 1: Like this is kind of like the second row of
Speaker 1: sharp teeth exactly right, right you are? You are wise
Speaker 1: and toothless at this point and getting on in years,
Speaker 1: I guess, so looking like you know, if you're considering
Speaker 1: just like ancient ancient man, right right, I mean, how
Speaker 1: else are you going to be able to eat your
Speaker 1: tiger meat? So you've got to You've got to get
Speaker 1: you've got to have something there in the wings. Um.
Speaker 1: The second school of thought is that as we evolve,
Speaker 1: that our jaws have actually gotten a lot smaller. So
Speaker 1: it's pretty simple. There was some teeth are getting crowded
Speaker 1: out their extraneous Uh they're a pain in the butt. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're unpleasant and they must be removed. Oh good, right, well,
Speaker 1: I probably will have to remove mine eventually or have
Speaker 1: them removed professionally rather um, because mine are generally rather quiet.
Speaker 1: But then occasionally they'll just be really painful for like
Speaker 1: a week. Yeah, they seem to do some sort of
Speaker 1: flare up, some sort of like evolutionary like hey remember me. Well.
Speaker 1: Another example is is body hair. H This is a
Speaker 1: This one's rather obvious when you when you look at it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, a good head of hair can help maintain
Speaker 1: cranial temperatures um and you know up. But obviously it's
Speaker 1: not mandatory, as any bald person will be able to
Speaker 1: tell you, or you know, just somebody who likes to
Speaker 1: shave their head. But but body hair used to be
Speaker 1: very important back in like, you know, way prehistoric days
Speaker 1: when when we were just you know, just naked creatures
Speaker 1: wandering a a frigid landscape. We depended on really furry
Speaker 1: bodies to maintain temperature. But of course, over time we
Speaker 1: wandered into areas that didn't that they weren't as cold,
Speaker 1: We went into warmer climates, We developed the ability to
Speaker 1: sweat and um and uh, and eventually we figured out
Speaker 1: how to make clothes and you know to mansions and
Speaker 1: building mansions. Yeah, so so you have body hair is
Speaker 1: is is a great example of something that we we
Speaker 1: really do not need a lot of people get rid
Speaker 1: of it through one or regularly purge themselves of it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's just you know, an evolutionary trait from from
Speaker 1: the old days. M hm. And yet it was so
Speaker 1: nice to have a stylish head of hair. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: I'm thinking like back to sort of evolution, never throwing
Speaker 1: something out just in case it needs it again. It's
Speaker 1: it's kind of an example of of where where they're saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you may have sweaters and make mansions today, but what
Speaker 1: about next year? What about a hundred years from now
Speaker 1: might get pretty cold? Yeah that nuclear winter, Yeah, there
Speaker 1: might be another ice stage coming. It's like, don't you know.
Speaker 1: It's like, I know all you humans want to be
Speaker 1: like nice, pink and hairless, but you know, just calm down.
Speaker 1: You might need it to get that's right, saying hey,
Speaker 1: I'm in here for the long haul. Yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: keeping it something to think about. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: about wisdom teeth though, like if if it is if
Speaker 1: it's like actually the jaw has has shrunk like I
Speaker 1: can't imagine that there being a case where I know,
Speaker 1: maybe there it is where are eventually our jaw would
Speaker 1: get bigger, or it's like nature's way of saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you can brush your teeth every day and lift till
Speaker 1: eighty now, but you know, call me in a hundred
Speaker 1: years and see if that's the case. Yeah, it's it's possible.
Speaker 1: I do think there's a logic behind it. And um,
Speaker 1: I think another one of these traits, which I don't
Speaker 1: know if it would come back or not, we will
Speaker 1: have to think about that is called Darwin's point, and
Speaker 1: it's also known as Darwin's tuber cole. And it's basically
Speaker 1: a small thick nodule on the upper ear lobe that
Speaker 1: we think was meant to help focus sounds so kind
Speaker 1: of hone in, so it's essentially a little fleshy antenna.
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time picturing it since we're both
Speaker 1: wearing headphones. Well now I now want to peel back
Speaker 1: your headphone and see if you have it. Um, but
Speaker 1: it's actually in some and some people looks kind of pronounced.
Speaker 1: It looks like a little elfin, like a little elfin
Speaker 1: ear bumps it's actually kind of cute. Um. But not
Speaker 1: everybody has this. This isn't more like an atavistic trait. Um.
Speaker 1: So in some populations it only shows up like ten
Speaker 1: percent of the time and others fifty percent of the time.
Speaker 1: Just sort of depends on where you live, what your
Speaker 1: genetics are, and so on and so forth. Um. But again,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe in the future we will need some
Speaker 1: little antenna device to help us with sound. You never know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or it's kind of a case where it's like you're
Speaker 1: not using it, but hey, it's not like it's inconveniencing us. Though.
Speaker 1: Mature is kind of like like, you know, don't freak out.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna keep this around and gains you need it.
Speaker 1: It's not like you're tripping over it. No, if you
Speaker 1: can dress it up for Halloween, make it even more pronounced.
Speaker 1: This presentation is brought to you by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. Now,
Speaker 1: another interesting the studio trait is the volmer and nasal
Speaker 1: organ which, yeah, and this is a structure in the
Speaker 1: nose that would ideally be used to detect pheromones emitted
Speaker 1: by potential mates. Uh in humans though uh, this you know,
Speaker 1: like cats and dogs are big on this and various
Speaker 1: other animals um, which is why I actually have a
Speaker 1: little spray can of cat pheromone to use just on
Speaker 1: your desk. I just want to want cats attacking me
Speaker 1: and coming to lay in all over me. UM no
Speaker 1: to keep to to try and keep ours from up
Speaker 1: from urinating where it's not supposed to um, which we're
Speaker 1: not sure she does, but just in case. Cat pheromones
Speaker 1: and spray form. Yeah, it's good to have around. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I did get myself in the face with it one
Speaker 1: day because with spraying it on event and I didn't
Speaker 1: realize the event was on, and so it's like three
Speaker 1: squirts of cat pheromone and then right back up in
Speaker 1: my face. So I was followed all day. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: your eyeball was licked a lot. Yeah, they're scratchy tongue,
Speaker 1: so weird on the eyeball. But but no so in
Speaker 1: humans though, uh, it doesn't even appear to be connected
Speaker 1: to the brain in any way. The vomber and nasal
Speaker 1: organ it's like it's not even plugged in. It's it's
Speaker 1: like the if you have a toaster of in your
Speaker 1: kitchen and you haven't used it in in ages. It's
Speaker 1: not even plugged in, but it's taken up counterspace. So
Speaker 1: if it were plugged in, does not mean we would
Speaker 1: all be sniffing each other. Maybe maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just sorry I had to ask. Um, let's let's
Speaker 1: hope it doesn't turn on. It would be it would
Speaker 1: certainly change the culture a bit. It would be awkward.
Speaker 1: So apparently embryos, embryonic humans actually developed this organ um
Speaker 1: and it's and and at one point in their development
Speaker 1: it's it's it's very much like the vombarnasal organs and
Speaker 1: other animals. But then it displaces and and it's pretty
Speaker 1: much just sort of set aside for the remainder like
Speaker 1: so so we always end up keeping it. It's all,
Speaker 1: it's there, but it's just never plugged in. Do you
Speaker 1: mind if I talk about nipples? Go for it? Okay?
Speaker 1: So male nipples, I mean we you know, the question
Speaker 1: always comes up every once in a while. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: are they for? Why? I just wanted to say, I
Speaker 1: hope you know this doesn't get too sensitive, but it's
Speaker 1: it's completely normal. And um, the short answer of the
Speaker 1: reason why men have nipples is because women do, and actually,
Speaker 1: in other non humans. This is true as well. Was
Speaker 1: this is a fallback in the idea that the female
Speaker 1: is actually the the is actually the species, and the
Speaker 1: male is just a mutation all the species necessary for approcreation.
Speaker 1: I'd like to think so, but actually this has to
Speaker 1: do with nature sort of again law probability, sort of
Speaker 1: creating this in both males and females. Uh So, it's
Speaker 1: it's called genetic correlation, and it really is a game
Speaker 1: of probability. So even though sex is determined at the
Speaker 1: time of fertilization, the gonads actually don't turn into testes
Speaker 1: or into ovaries until the seventh week, and they don't
Speaker 1: expressing the they don't start expressing the gender until them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so just think it's just just in case scenario. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of like if you have a I don't
Speaker 1: know if they do this anymore, but you do. It's
Speaker 1: like if you if you if you purchase an automobile
Speaker 1: that didn't have like a cigarette ashtray, like sometimes there
Speaker 1: would be you could see the space where it would be. Yes,
Speaker 1: So it's like the default car body um or or
Speaker 1: just like interior body or shell or whatever had the
Speaker 1: place for it, just in case it was there right exactly,
Speaker 1: So just in case nature was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is a gamble here, Well, we'll go ahead and
Speaker 1: give nipples to everybody. All mammals, they get them. Um.
Speaker 1: And you might have actually even heard of something called
Speaker 1: witch's milk um, and this is actually produced in newborn infants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and people kind of get freaked out about that because
Speaker 1: I think, whoa, my why why is my son lactating?
Speaker 1: WHOA like a baby will lactate? Yeah, yeah, it's it's rare.
Speaker 1: I didn't I knew about men lactating, of course, but
Speaker 1: but babies, which is milk? Yeah, which is milk. But
Speaker 1: the reason is because they're they're brush actually stimulated when
Speaker 1: they're in their mother's womb because the mother's hormones are
Speaker 1: crossing the placenta. So they basically kind of they come
Speaker 1: out and they still have some of those hormones in
Speaker 1: their system and they start lactating. So if this happens,
Speaker 1: it's it's actually not abnormal. It's fine. Wow. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: if you were if you happen to have been born
Speaker 1: in ye olden times as a baby with the tail lactating,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yeah, you were toast. Yeah, it just wasn't
Speaker 1: looking good for you or your mom. So what there's
Speaker 1: a debate here. So there are some people who say
Speaker 1: that actually that the nipples aren't vestigial because it's more like,
Speaker 1: you know, again that game of probability. Um, they would
Speaker 1: be active if you are a female um or at
Speaker 1: least actively lactating. Right. Um, So let's talk about a
Speaker 1: little bit like the like what is vestigial, what's not vestigial?
Speaker 1: Some things that are up in the air. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it's um, you know, it's it's it's like, like we said,
Speaker 1: some of these things are are just in a process
Speaker 1: of maybe being phased out for the time being, and
Speaker 1: uh and someone in they're also cases's kind of like
Speaker 1: that list of ninety odd things. Um, you know, we
Speaker 1: came back around to some of those and said, well wait,
Speaker 1: actually you do need this. Actually this does have a
Speaker 1: purpose toes are helpful, right, So um so yeah, so
Speaker 1: some of the the the items that we have considered
Speaker 1: vestigio in the past, us some scientists are saying, well,
Speaker 1: hold on, you know, I think that I think it
Speaker 1: might actually have this this purpose during you know, this
Speaker 1: particular situation. So uh so, yeah, we're actually gonna come
Speaker 1: to two of the biggest uh, and the first of
Speaker 1: which is the just the superstar of vestigial organs, the appendix.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's uh. It's something that in humans is
Speaker 1: sometimes reviled only because appendecontomies, right, and I know we
Speaker 1: have performed something like three thousand of them a year. Um.
Speaker 1: But in small plant eating vertebrates, the appendix is actually
Speaker 1: pretty large and it helps to digest food. Um. If
Speaker 1: you look at humans, it's just kind of a small,
Speaker 1: lonely pouch and it's hanging out next to the large
Speaker 1: intestine in the small intestine and then sometimes needs to
Speaker 1: be removed. And it's yeah, exactly, that's the appendicitis uh so.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is that it's it's a sort
Speaker 1: of a third wheel to digestion. It doesn't do anything
Speaker 1: thought is that like the plant eating vertebrates, at one
Speaker 1: point it did actually break down food and aid in digestion.
Speaker 1: So that's what we know about it. Um. Yeah, countless
Speaker 1: people have this. Do you have yours? I do have mine,
Speaker 1: like in your body or not? In a jar? R? No? No,
Speaker 1: not not yet. Yeah, I have mine still inside me
Speaker 1: inside me. Okay, but um, but yeah, that's it's like
Speaker 1: like millions of people have this removed, and everybody goes
Speaker 1: on just fine. Nobody's like, oh I wish I hadn't
Speaker 1: had that that appendix right exactly. So a lot of
Speaker 1: people have thought, Okay, well, it must be the sigila
Speaker 1: has absolutely no purpose. And yet uh there's a growing
Speaker 1: debate on this, and some people have have pointed out
Speaker 1: that well, first of all, when that appendix is still
Speaker 1: in your body, it is a producer of white blood
Speaker 1: cells and anybody. So it's it's not just necessarily along
Speaker 1: for the ride. It may not be be meeting the
Speaker 1: same purpose that it was originally there for, but it's
Speaker 1: it's still doing something. Um. Of course it could still
Speaker 1: be considered vestigial given that. But then then there's also
Speaker 1: this um where it really gets interesting is the idea
Speaker 1: that the appendix UH can repopulate the gut with microbes
Speaker 1: needed to stave off infection. And where where this is
Speaker 1: key it comes down satellite to the topic of diarrhea
Speaker 1: and dysentery. In the developed world. If you first of all,
Speaker 1: you're probably less likely to get some strains of dysentery
Speaker 1: and diarrhea. And then when you do you can go
Speaker 1: to your doctor or you can go to your drug
Speaker 1: store and get something to deal with it. Um in
Speaker 1: you know, in the in the past, and indeed still
Speaker 1: in many parts of the world. That's those options aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily on the table or as readily available. And so
Speaker 1: there's this, uh, this belief. To really understand the appendix role,
Speaker 1: we need to be able to to look at at
Speaker 1: developing countries and uh and look at because we we
Speaker 1: have the facts on its removal and that have all
Speaker 1: the world, we can say like millions of people haven't
Speaker 1: done every day no problem. But but but they say,
Speaker 1: we really need to look at people in the developing world, um,
Speaker 1: you know, like portions of war torn Africa, et cetera,
Speaker 1: and see if there are people there with appendix removed,
Speaker 1: how they would fare given their conditions. Okay, so their
Speaker 1: exposure to many more diseases and so on and so forth. Right,
Speaker 1: so in this case, it would be this would be
Speaker 1: an organ that that would be vestigial to some but
Speaker 1: not to others. And uh, and again it's kind of
Speaker 1: like nature saying, hey, you have you know, you have
Speaker 1: a ride a down the road now and clean drinking
Speaker 1: water in your house, but you know, a hundred years
Speaker 1: from now, maybe not, and then you're gonna come run
Speaker 1: into me. The appendix want me to pump you full
Speaker 1: of um microbes to stave off you're a dysentery. And
Speaker 1: if you're lucky and I haven't burst, I will help you.
Speaker 1: That's what I imagined the appendix to say that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh another vestigial Uh. I guess you would say trait
Speaker 1: or structure in this case would be the tailbone. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the cockax cossacks, Okay, I always get that, and the
Speaker 1: the frozen lake can Dante's Inferno? Confused? What is that called?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Quick, Quick, I don't know. I can't
Speaker 1: say it either. You're the one that knows Italian, don't Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't know that. I that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: I know the first will check into it, all right.
Speaker 1: It's on the tip of my tongue. I can picture
Speaker 1: the word in my head. But but anyway, the we
Speaker 1: we mentioned some of this earlier about the growth of
Speaker 1: a tail that will happen occasionally, and so the tailbone
Speaker 1: is is kind of the same deal. What does it
Speaker 1: really do for us a side occasionally getting broken if
Speaker 1: you fall in your butt hard enough. Um, maybe not
Speaker 1: all that much. Ah, there's I mean the whole idea
Speaker 1: is these are smaller and smaller vertebrae leading up to
Speaker 1: the tail that isn't even there, right, So it's kind
Speaker 1: of a evolutionary road to nowhere, you know. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there are some people who say that cossacks it's it's
Speaker 1: helps to anchor minor muscles and helps support pelvic organs.
Speaker 1: And they say that, you know, there's there's some evidence,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of weak evidence, I have to say,
Speaker 1: because you can have the cossacks removed or excuse me,
Speaker 1: the tailbone, and uh, you can have a little or
Speaker 1: no adverse effects. I mean, you can live without it, yeah,
Speaker 1: if need be. It's kind of like to use an
Speaker 1: example here at work, Um, in one of our meeting
Speaker 1: rooms that's called the cool room. U, there is a
Speaker 1: cardboard box in the corner that apparently contains cat. No,
Speaker 1: not a cat. It contains I think it contains like
Speaker 1: lit rocks or something like a product from another age,
Speaker 1: and but it's been in there forever those this product
Speaker 1: is not to mind. I I have no idea, but
Speaker 1: evidently it's not going anywhere. This package is it has
Speaker 1: no delivery information on it. Um, whatever purpose it was
Speaker 1: originally intended for, it's obviously not meeting right, and it's
Speaker 1: it survived renovations, right, renovation after innovation. But I set
Speaker 1: on it every meeting that we have in the cool room,
Speaker 1: at least for the big editorial meetings. So while it's
Speaker 1: original purpose is long gone, it is found a new
Speaker 1: purpose and it works very well in that regard. So
Speaker 1: it's adapted. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's very Darwinian of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could. You could remove it now and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is pointless within horma gonna set right, so you
Speaker 1: would miss it. Yeah. So I think a number of
Speaker 1: these things will the appendix and the tailbone seem to
Speaker 1: fall into those potentially fall into those categories where the
Speaker 1: original you know, full blown purpose may not be appliable anymore,
Speaker 1: but they still have important roles to play. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't want them to go away. So Robert, tell
Speaker 1: me about your toes and fingernails. Um, well, my fingernails
Speaker 1: are fine. Uh. My toes, however, well kept, look good. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: thank you. Um my toes my toe nails at times
Speaker 1: have proved a problem. Uh, to the point where I've wondered,
Speaker 1: what's up with them? Like, why do I have toenails
Speaker 1: if they're just going to um, you know, break when
Speaker 1: they run into tables, uh, if and they're gonna end
Speaker 1: up growing weird into like the side of my toe.
Speaker 1: So I've had to have this procedure done. Uh forgive me.
Speaker 1: I don't know the name of it, but basically, uh,
Speaker 1: the doctor goes in, cuts off, cuts out a side
Speaker 1: of the toenail, and then kills the nail bed. So
Speaker 1: I still have to nails, you know, I'm not you know,
Speaker 1: they just want to get that out there. But they've
Speaker 1: been altered so that they don't grow so mind numbingly
Speaker 1: painful anymore. And I've run into other people like a
Speaker 1: friend of mine, Uh, this guy Michael. It's like I
Speaker 1: was talking him one day. It's like he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I had that procedure done. Uh. And then my my
Speaker 1: actual pediatrist, who he's had it done as well. So
Speaker 1: so you feel like maybe the toe nails they could well,
Speaker 1: I just think there's something well I don't know, if
Speaker 1: we well, maybe we could lose them. I happy and
Speaker 1: I haven't had to like actually like dig in the
Speaker 1: dirt with my toes before. Um, I mean not, I
Speaker 1: mean maybe recreationally, but you know, not for an actual
Speaker 1: survival purpose. We don't want to hear about your weekend.
Speaker 1: But I mean, seriously, it's like if if I'm having
Speaker 1: to go to the doctor to have them change so
Speaker 1: that they don't hurt, there's something. There's something up. But
Speaker 1: maybe the design is a little outdated. Yeah, yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: go with that. But we maybe we want them, but
Speaker 1: not necessarily the way that they are. Yeah, Um, I
Speaker 1: do say that I think that the fingernails are still
Speaker 1: pretty useful. Yes, definitely. In fact, I know, um, one
Speaker 1: guy that uses his pinky nail uh to actually screw
Speaker 1: things in. You thought I was gonna get somewhere else
Speaker 1: with that, didn't you, I don't know, long pinky nails. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: but so you know they can still be used as tools. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, anybody who's I mean using to
Speaker 1: pick up stuff all the time, scratching It may not
Speaker 1: be the ideal thing to do, but I mean, how
Speaker 1: would you like? Scratching would be a whole different ordeal
Speaker 1: if you couldn't, like rub a mosquito bite? Can Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that? Would be torture. So I think
Speaker 1: nails are not going away anytime, know, And then I
Speaker 1: guess there's something too about keeping bacteria away or I
Speaker 1: don't even know, or something that we're storing it for later.
Speaker 1: I'll have this for later. Um, but that does make
Speaker 1: me think, what what are we going to look like
Speaker 1: in five years? You know, what what might become vestigial
Speaker 1: for for us humans? Yeah? Yeah, again, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: you know, develop new organs or limbs, you know, to
Speaker 1: to tackle new problems. But you know, some new problems
Speaker 1: may arise, some problems will continue to disappear. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll we become completely hairless. I'm going with that. Will
Speaker 1: all of us lose these annoying wisdom teeth? I hope
Speaker 1: so I certainly do. Uh. Will we no longer have
Speaker 1: to nails? Hmm, It's possible, We'll see. So if you
Speaker 1: want to know more about this topic, UM, you should
Speaker 1: come to the house stuff works dot com website and
Speaker 1: check out how this digial organs work by Molly Edmunds. Um,
Speaker 1: you should read how atavism works by Katie Lambert, and
Speaker 1: we also have one on how natural selection works by
Speaker 1: ed uh Grab Byanofsky's Right said it right and Grab,
Speaker 1: as we call him grab so. For more information on
Speaker 1: why you do or do not have a kale uh,
Speaker 1: check out those articles and we'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
Speaker 1: the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
Speaker 1: right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone
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