Leftovers Everywhere

The spare parts keep going. Around your ears sit muscles that once swiveled them toward sounds, like a cat's. In most people they no longer work, though a lucky few can still wiggle their ears.

Deep in the calf, the small plantaris muscle is so minor that surgeons borrow it for grafts and you never miss it. Each of these is a quiet record of an older body. We are walking museums of evolution, carrying hardware that no longer runs its original software.