That evolution hasn’t ousted the appendix?

You’re tellin’ me!

According to WebMD, “The appendix sits at the junction of the small intestine and large intestine. It’s a thin tube about four inches long. Normally, the appendix sits in the lower right abdomen. The function of the appendix is unknown.”* Essentially, the appendix serves no clear purpose, and is about as useful as the cartilage on your ear.

Recently, though, some experts at Duke released some interesting information about the functionality of the appendix. “According to the researchers, the appendix's job is to "reboot" the digestive system.”^ Your guess is as good as mine.

And, even despite this medical revelation, these scientists still admit, “The appendix is routinely removed without any notable ill effects or side effects and the scientists stress that even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed…”^

So whether or not the appendix has any functionality whatsoever, having it removed has zero visible adverse effects on human health (begging me to ask question, what functionality could the appendix possibly have in the first place.)

Weirdly, having the appendix removed has no effect whatsoever on the stability of human health. But keeping your appendix, now that’s a different story.

In fact, the most common effect that the appendix has on human health is its ability to act as a killing machine. Every one in a while, this organ will decide its time to swell up like a balloon, explode, and threaten to murder the body in which it sits. In fact, if left untreated the mortality rate of appendicitis is abnormally high. This is certainly a weird fact.

1 in 15 people will fall victim to appendicitis in their lifetime. Appendicitis demands a relatively intense surgery that demands at least an overnight hospital, and painful recovery.

But appendicitis isn’t the only disease associated with this pesky organ. Cancer of the appendix accounts for 1 in 200 of all gastrointestinal tumors.

All of the above brings us to the ultimate weirdness: the fact that the appendix even still exists!

Picture this: you are an architect, and you decide to build a skyscraper. In a locked room, you put an enormous bomb that usually just dawdles aimlessly, but 6.6% of the time, threatens to detonate and collapse this skyscraper. Because the bomb is in a locked room, getting to it will demand some intense prodding, probably leaving some blemishes on the skyscraper’s exterior structure.

If you were a smart architect (a smartchitecht?), you would realize that locking up a pointlessly threatening bomb in your building was, in the least, inefficient. But if you were a somewhat stupid architect, you would continue constructing all of your buildings with a locked bomb inside, just waiting to explode.

Well, to me, this makes evolution is a somewhat stupid architect. Sure it’s done some great things, like let us walk solely on our legs, but still, I have to wonder what has possessed evolution to hold on to the appendix.

Oh well! For now, we can just wait patiently, I suppose.

*http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/picture-of-the-appendix
^http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/10/08/30907.aspx