If you’re like me, you probably think that medical science has long since identified all the organs in the human body. Indeed, no new human organs have been identified for about 300 years. Until now.
The New York Times is reporting that researchers from the Netherlands have discovered a fourth set of pituitary glands at the junction of the nasal cavity and throat. It seems nearly impossible that they could have been missed for so long but they are in an out of the way place and require particularly sensitive imaging to detect. Also the researchers, who are oncologists, have examined only a small set of people who are cancer sufferers and they want a larger and more diverse sample.
Still, the preliminary data is pretty persuasive that they have in fact found a hitherto unknown organ. It’s a good lesson: no matter how settled we think a field may be there’s always something new to learn.