the.com/kidneys
two fist-sized filters quietly bailing out your bloodstream while you take all the credit
means The pair of bean-shaped organs that filter waste from your blood and turn it into urine, while also balancing fluids and blood pressure.
from A Middle English word, 'kidenei,' whose deeper roots are genuinely murky — it may join 'kid' (in an old sense of belly or womb) with 'ey,' an Old English word for egg, picturing the organs as little eggs nestled in the belly. That's a plausible reading rather than a proven one; etymologists admit the first part is uncertain. The plural 'kidneys' simply followed the pair.
- blood volume
- filter your entire blood supply 40 times daily
- spare parts
- one alone can run the whole show
- hormone job
- they tell your body to make red blood cells
- ancient design
- every vertebrate on Earth runs the same model
- resale value
- black market price tops 200,000 dollars
nephrops norvegicus — norwegian lobster whose kidneys filter waste in cold atlantic waters
kidney stone disease — affects 1 in 11 americans, causing crystalline deposits in renal systems
dialysis — treats over 2 million patients globally whose kidneys can no longer function