Body and Mind

Senses, Genes and Immunity

How we sense the world, inherit traits and defend against disease.

How Digestion Works

Follow food from the mouth through the stomach and intestines, and see how enzymes, bile and the gut lining break it down and absorb nutrients.

4 min read

How the Immune System Defends the Body

An introduction to the layers of the immune system, from skin and inflammation to white blood cells, antibodies and immune memory, in plain language.

4 min read

How Traits Are Inherited

Learn the basics of genetics: how genes and alleles are passed from parents, what dominant and recessive mean, and why children resemble their parents.

4 min read

How Vision Works

Follow light through the cornea, lens and retina, and see how rods, cones and the brain turn it into the images we see, plus why vision sometimes blurs.

4 min read

How We Hear

See how the outer, middle and inner ear turn sound vibrations into nerve signals, and how the brain interprets pitch and loudness.

4 min read

What DNA Is and What It Does

A plain-language look at DNA: the double helix, the four-letter code, how genes are used to make proteins, and what mutations are.

4 min read

What Is the Gut Microbiome?

An explainer on the microbes living in the digestive tract, what they are known to do, and the open questions that researchers are still working on.

4 min read

Why Do We Dream?

What scientists know about dreaming and REM sleep, and the leading theories about why we dream, from memory to emotion, none of which is settled.

4 min read

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