For more than a century, the appendix was considered nothing more than a medical nuisance. Textbooks described it as a vestigial remnant—an evolutionary leftover from our plant-eating ancestors. Surgeons routinely removed it, often alongside unrelated abdominal procedures, believing it served no function. If it became inflamed, it was immediately cut out, its removal deemed inconsequential. But groundbreaking research out of Duke University and other medical institutions is rewriting that narra...