MINNEAPOLIS — Stephen Colbert is away from late-night TV following emergency surgery last week — the comedian's appendix burst. That made us wonder: What does the appendix do for our body? And why are ...

The appendix is actually part of your immune system. Just because you can live without it doesn't mean you don't need it. Why can't people realise this? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain ...

For decades, the appendix has been dismissed as a useless organ — a leftover from human evolution with no real function.

It was the first day of spring break in 1992 in Phoenix, Ariz. and 12-year-old Heather Smith was excited for her family's upcoming ski trip. But before Smith and her family had even packed their snow ...

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are crucial for protecting against bacterial infection in people with compromised immune systems, report investigators. Their work shows that a network of immune cells ...

The appendix is a finger-like projection described as a blind-ended tube, usually several inches long, that is attached to the large intestine at its beginning known as the cecum. This is the area ...

You may have heard that astronauts have their appendix removed before leaving Earth. After all, people say you can live without this organ because it serves no purpose, but how much truth is there in ...

Nobody's really sure why we humans have an appendix, and some biology textbooks still refer to the pinkie-size organ, located near the juncture of the large and small intestine, as a "vestigial organ.