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 ...

When doctors and patients consider the appendix, it's often with urgency. In cases of appendicitis, the clock could be ticking down to a life-threatening burst. Thus, despite recent research ...

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 That view is now outdated.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 ...