Science &THE IDEAS JOURNAL
Science. Systems. Possibility.
Explore questions across science, from everyday observations to the ideas and methods that help explain them. Clear reading for a curious mind.
Yes, you can go through a metal detector with a pacemaker in most cases, but do not linger inside the arch for more than 1 to 2 seconds or make repeated passes.
Read the story ↗
Inside the tools of discovery ↗Yes, vaping can cause brain damage in specific high-exposure or susceptible cases, but the evidence does not show that typical adult vaping reliably produces gross brain injury.
No. Tretinoin cannot be bought over the counter in the United States.
The question "can you die without a thyroid" has a two-part answer: the gland is optional, the hormone is not.
Yes, you can die from kidney stone surgery, but the absolute risk is very low—usually well under 1% and concentrated in patients who develop severe infection, major bleeding, anesthesia complications, or cardiovascular events.
Yes, and in fact that is the usual position for it on the calendar — but the gap matters. Implantation bleeding happens 6 to 12 days after ovulation.
Yes, vaping can burn your tongue, but most cases are superficial heat or chemical irritation rather than a deep thermal burn. The tongue is wet, thin, and highly vascular, so it can feel painful fast and heal quickly.
Yes, you can fart if you're constipated, and most people still pass gas several times a day. Constipation slows solid stool through the colon, but gas travels a faster, separate route that hard stool cannot fully seal off.
Yes, you can be hospitalized for high blood pressure, but only when the number is not the main problem.
Yes, you can be allergic to chamomile, but a true immune-mediated allergy is uncommon. It can appear as immediate IgE reactions to chamomile pollen proteins or as delayed contact dermatitis to sesquiterpene lactones in the plant.
Yes, stress can cause hair breakage, but almost never the way most articles claim.
Yes, vitiligo can go away and come back again. Treatment can restore pigment in 50 to 80 percent of people, depending on the body site and how early therapy starts, but the underlying autoimmune process is never fully cured.
Yes, you can get shingles on your fingers, but it is uncommon. Herpes zoster occurs when latent varicella-zoster virus reactivates in a dorsal root ganglion and travels down a sensory nerve.
Yes, tennis elbow can cause hand pain and weakness, but the connection runs through the forearm rather than the hand itself.
Yes, soybean oil can cause diarrhea, but dose and context decide the outcome, not the oil itself. In typical amounts, refined soybean oil does not trigger loose stools in most adults.
Yes, you can die from edema, but the swelling itself is rarely the direct cause. Can you die from edema?
Yes, you can get hives from being cold. The condition is acquired cold urticaria: within minutes of contact with cold air, cold water, or a cold object, mast cells in the skin release histamine and other mediators, and raised, itchy wheals…
Can you get shingles in the mouth? Yes. Oral shingles happens when latent varicella-zoster virus reactivates in the trigeminal nerve and travels down the maxillary or mandibular branch, producing a one-sided crop of vesicles that quickly…
No, you cannot legally buy piracetam over the counter in the US. The FDA has not approved piracetam for any human use, and it is not a lawful dietary supplement, so US retailers cannot sell it as an OTC nootropic.
Yes: you can get a root canal removed, but the phrase hides three different procedures. The root canal itself is an event, not an object, so nothing is lifted out intact.
Yes. Adults can be, and routinely are, diagnosed with autism later in life.
Can weed affect your liver? Yes, but the effect depends more on dose, potency, route, duration, and your underlying liver health than on the plant alone.
No, you cannot get rabies from a rat bite under virtually any circumstances. Rabies virus has never been documented to transmit from a rat to a human in the United States, and globally the evidence is exceedingly thin.
Yes, you can get E. Coli from sushi, but the fish is rarely the culprit.
AI-generated editorial images · Image policy