knowledge -WSS

knowledge

author：entertainment 2025-09-30 14:09:20 - browse：76332

Fingernails sometimes fall off when they’re damaged — like if they get stuck in a car door.

That has to do with what’s known as the matrix, the spot at the bottom of your nail that’s responsible for growing your nail. Nails themselves are actually little plates of proteins called keratin. All of those proteins are connected, which is what makes one continuous nail.

When your finger experiences a shock, like getting stuck in a car door, the matrix temporarily pauses the growth of the fingernail. That pause means the proteins are no longer connected. So the new part of the nail that starts growing isn’t connected to the old part that you could already see — which is why your fingernail falls off.

We investigate the strange science of fingernails in the latest episode of our video series “Boddities.”

Newsletters

Sign up for Morning Rounds

Your daily dose of news in health and medicine.

Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy

Related: Watch: Episode 12: What would happen to your eyes if you looked at the solar eclipse?

Related: Watch: Episode 11: Why do bug bites cause bumps on the skin?

Related: Watch: Episode 10: What happens when skin gets sunburned?

Related: Watch: Episode 9: Why can’t teeth heal themselves?

Related: Episode 8: What makes metabolism fast?

Previous article： At least 13 dead in Texas as scorching temps continue
Next article： Friends ask where James Watson's attitudes about race came from

knowledge

WSS

Hawaii wildfires fueled by Hurricane Dora's winds prompt evacuations

NIH trials fail to test meaningful long Covid therapies, experts say

The best solution to the drug shortages problem

Here's how to stay safe from wildfire smoke amid reduced air quality

What Wagner Group's armed rebellion could mean for Russia's endgame in Ukraine

Why failed clinical trials don’t always spell doom for a new drug

leisure time

knowledge

Sign up for Morning Rounds

Related: Watch: Episode 12: What would happen to your eyes if you looked at the solar eclipse?

Related: Watch: Episode 11: Why do bug bites cause bumps on the skin?

Related: Watch: Episode 10: What happens when skin gets sunburned?

Related: Watch: Episode 9: Why can’t teeth heal themselves?

Related: Episode 8: What makes metabolism fast?

focus

George Santos makes 1st court appearance after pleading not guilty to 13 counts

UnitedHealth starts bidding war with $3.3 billion offer for Amedisys

Anesthesiologist group: stop taking Ozempic before surgery

Methadone doses haven’t kept up in the age of fentanyl

Drug repurposing or repositioning? The language matters

ADA: All diabetes patients should be screened for liver condition

Continuity nursing helped my family in our darkest PICU moments

Tuskegee Airman Raymond Cassagnol dies at 102

George Santos makes 1st court appearance after pleading not guilty to 13 counts

Ukrainian soldiers say they owe lives to US

hotspot

Belarusian journalist sentenced to 4 years in prison as crackdown continues

Here's how to stay safe from wildfire smoke amid reduced air quality

How to use technology to prevent future drug shortages

Synthetic human embryos? Researchers say term is overblown

Wegovy trial has doctors encouraged over new possibilities

The sun may be out, but guns are not. A lawsuit challenges a new gun ban on Hawaii beaches

hotspot

hotspot

knowledge

focus