Sheena Faherty

After a teenage stowaway flew from California to Hawaii hidden in the wheel well of an airplane this week, investigators immediately began to wonder how he had survived the freezing temperatures and low-oxygen conditions of the unpressurized compartment. The latest theory is that he fell into a state of hibernation – an entirely plausible scenario, if you ask me. How do I know this? Well, I study the closest genetic relative of humans known to hibernate.

Batman is perhaps the most high maintenance of any superhero: An arsenal of high-tech gadgets working together in batty synchrony provides assistance against in his never-ending war on crime. His Bat Mobile would be vulnerable without his Bat Cave. And he would be helpless without his old friend Robin. The human body—known in some circles as a superorganism—is not all that different from a high-maintenance superhero.

People who donate money or fundraise for a cause are often silent heroes. However, unlike many fundraising efforts, it’s readily apparent who’s participating in one that’s currently taking the nation by its facial hair. The fundraiser in question is none other than the Movember movement. Its mascot? The glorious moustache…or ‘stache…or mo. It is, quite literally, the face of men’s health.