Human Body — Page 5
The incredible human body
133 facts
The skin is the largest organ in the human body.
Covering the entire external surface of the body, the skin acts as a protective barrier against the external…
The human body harbors more bacterial cells than human cells.
It is estimated that the human microbiome contains about thirty-nine trillion bacteria, slightly outnumbering the…
The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body.
Located in the buttocks, this muscle is responsible for keeping the trunk upright and is essential for movements like…
The human brain generates enough electricity to power a low-wattage light bulb.
Neurons in the brain produce constant electrical impulses. In a waking state, the brain generates about twenty-three…
The masseter, or jaw muscle, is considered the strongest muscle in the human body relative to its size.
This muscle is responsible for closing the jaw during chewing and can exert a surprisingly high bite force…
The human stomach gets a completely new lining every few days to prevent it from digesting itself.
Stomach acid is so strong it could dissolve metal. To prevent its own walls from being destroyed, the organ produces…
Babies are born without kneecaps, which are made of cartilage and ossify later.
At birth, babies have cartilage in the knee area instead of true bone. This cartilage begins to ossify and turn into…
Humans are the only primates that cannot produce their own vitamin C.
Most mammals synthesise vitamin C in the liver from glucose. Humans, along with fruit bats and guinea pigs, lost this…
The human nose can distinguish more than one trillion different odours.
For decades it was thought that the human nose could only distinguish about 10,000 odours. A 2014 study published in…
The cornea of the human eye has no blood vessels, which is why it is transparent.
The cornea is the transparent layer at the front of the eye. To maintain transparency, it cannot have blood vessels…
The human body contains enough iron to make a small nail.
Most of the bodys iron is in haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. In total, an adult has…
Humans share about 60 percent of their DNA with bananas.
This genetic similarity is due to the fact that all life forms on Earth share a common ancestor. The genes…
Your nose and ears never stop growing throughout your entire life.
Although bone growth stops after puberty, the cartilage in the nose and ears continues to grow and expand…
Tooth enamel does not regenerate if damaged.
Unlike other tissues, dental enamel contains no living cells, so the body cannot repair it after it forms during…
Human skin completely regenerates every month.
The human body produces about three hundred and forty thousand new skin cells every minute, completely replacing the…
A quarter of the human body's bones are in the feet.
Each foot contains twenty-six bones, meaning both feet together account for about twenty-five percent of the entire…
The human femur is stronger than concrete.
The thigh bone is incredibly dense and structured to support body weight, able to withstand a compressive pressure…
Sleep deprivation causes the brain to start consuming itself.
Chronic lack of sleep causes glial cells to go into overdrive, starting to devour unnecessary synapses and neural…
The type of earwax in humans is determined by a single gene.
A mutation in the ABCC11 gene determines whether the wax will be wet and sticky or dry and flaky, with the dry…
The storage capacity of the human brain is equivalent to two point five petabytes.
Estimates based on the number of synapses suggest the brain could store the equivalent of three million hours of…
Tooth enamel is the hardest substance produced by the human body.
Composed mostly of minerals like hydroxyapatite, enamel is harder than bone and serves to protect teeth from the…
Humans shed about eighteen kilograms of skin over their lifetime.
The outer layer of skin constantly renews itself, shedding thousands of dust particles per minute. Over an average…
About half of human DNA comes from ancient viruses that infected our ancestors.
Human endogenous retroviruses are remnants of viral infections that occurred millions of years ago and became…
Humans glow in the dark, but the light is invisible to the human eye.
The human body emits a small amount of visible light due to metabolic reactions that produce free radicals. However…
