Intense Back Pain Led Me From Outer Space to the Inside of a Cell (opens in new tab)

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette. My knowledge of anatomy is rather limited, so I wasn’t too surprised that I had never heard of the “multifidus” muscles that line the spinal column and have the task of supporting movement of the vertebrae. Neither had I heard of the “transversus abdominis” muscles in the abdomen that act as a natural corset, stabilizing the lumbar spine. I now know that weakness of these muscles is associated with low back pain, something I learned th...