Amazon has been using its current logo for 18 years. The online retailer started using the logo in June 2000, shortly after it expanded beyond selling books. The logo shows the company’s name, with an arrow that points from the “A” to the “Z” in the name.
HIV transmission is a complex process with factors beyond just who you sleep with and how. The virus ultimately needs to find its way to the correct kinds of cells in order to wreak havoc. And some of the risk, at least for those with penises, may come from the kinds of bacteria on the tip.
The ocean is full of mystery. It is also full of penises. And biologists have taken note. Some marine animals look especially phallic—to the point that no one’s even trying to hide the truth behind a veil of innuendo. By that I mean there are literally sea creatures whose scientific names have the word “penis” in them.
This is a peanut worm. It is an animal. Not a penis. But it looks like a penis.
Although we call erections “boners,” anyone who has basic familiarity with human anatomy knows our slang deceives us—for unlike most mammals, men have no penis bones. For decades scientists have wondered, “Why? No? Penis Bone?” A new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society might finally answer the mystery…
Researchers working in Burma have uncovered the fossilized remains of a 99-million-year old male daddy longlegs with its penis fully extended and erect. It’s possibly the oldest—and longest held—erection in the history of science.
Just in time for Halloween, University of Glasgow medical student Mike McCormick released diagrams of the female and male reproductive systems made out of all the kinds of candy I hated to get when I went trick-or-treating as a kid.
Cat sex videos are all the same. The tom mounts the female, she arches her back and moves her tail aside–a response called lordosis, by the way–and the two of them get down to the act. But soon afterwards, the yowling starts, followed by the spitting and swiping. Why so angry, kittycat?
The tuatara isn’t actually a lizard. It’s the last survivor of a 250 million year old group of reptiles that mostly went extinct with the dinosaurs. It doesn’t have a penis, and ironically, that’s made it a linchpin for understanding how penises evolved in vertebrates.
Ejaculation may feel like a glorious mess, as uncontrollable as an avalanche or a runaway train. In reality, it’s a tightly choreographed court dance: integrating three different branches of the nervous system, triggering cascades of contractions in smooth and striated muscles, all accompanied by the electrical storm…
Lamar Odom came off life support and regained consciousness today after collapsing while visiting a brothel in Nevada. The apparent culprit(s), according to the Nye County sheriff: cocaine combined with 10 tabs of natural “sexual performance enhancer supplements” — a.k.a. “herbal Viagra.” But it’s possible those…
Developmental biologists noticed back in the 1990s that a lot of the genes that make a penis are the same as the ones that make limbs. They’ve been finding new similarities ever since. Ed Yong, writing at his occasionally penis-obsessed blog Not Exactly Rocket Science, explains how legless, but not penis-less snakes…
Some mammals have a dangerous-looking penis because their glans is covered in spines. In a few cases, we know why they’re there (typically, to induce ovulation during copulation). But in many other species, the purpose of the spiky bits is something of a mystery.
Previous studies of how women perceive penis size and shape relied on 2D drawings and photographs of flaccid penises. Now, a research team of psychologists from UCLA and the University of New Mexico have taken things into the third dimension.
Female mosquitofish give birth to tiny babies, like the guppies you may remember from your third-grade aquarium. That means male mosquitofish don’t spawn: if they’re going to be dads, they need to use a modified fin (called a gonopodium) to inseminate their mate. And sex with a long, stiff fin demands a daunting level…
Guys, imagine for a moment what life would be like if you couldn’t feel your penis. That can happen to men with some kinds of spinal injuries, or who were born with a condition called spina bifida. Their penises can still sense touch, but a break in the spinal cord means the signal never makes it to the brain.
If you’ve ever watched a pair of dogs have sex, you’ve probably noticed something odd happen partway through the act. At first, the male grips the female’s back and humps away–nothing unusual about it. But then he dismounts and turns to face away from his mate, with his penis still stuck inside her.
We’ve seen it in study after study: men worry about what their penis looks like. Is it too short? Too long? Too thin? Is the glans too fat? Will that birthmark be a deal breaker? Relax. A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine last month suggests that women don’t really notice those details.
Sea slugs are beautiful, jewel-like animals with surprisingly violent mating habits. This tiny unnamed species in the genus Siphopteron is no different.
Erectile dysfunction isn’t a new problem, but there weren’t any effective treatments for the condition until the middle of the 20th century. Before then, desperate people turned to sympathetic magic, patent medicines, fad treatments, and convincing frauds to try to get it up.