For more than a century, the human appendix has been written off as a biological relic, a shrunken leftover from plant-eating ancestors that serves no real purpose. That view is now outdated. A ...

For years, the appendix carried a reputation as the body’s most pointless organ. Doctors often removed it without hesitation, and textbooks labeled it a vestigial structure—something our ancestors ...

Most people know only two things about the appendix: You don’t need it – and if it bursts, you need surgery fast. That basic story traces back at least to Charles Darwin, the English naturalist who ...

Although they are very rare, cancers of the appendix are on the rise, a new study finds. An analysis of a National Cancer Institute database found that compared with older generations, rates of ...