The human body is an incredible thing that many of us don’t stop to really think about. It’s our home while we are on this Earth, but we never really think about the wonders happening inside. We are made up of a system of organs that will forever remain a mystery. So if you ever wondered about its functions and the complexities happening inside, take a look at these surprising human body facts that you weren’t taught in school.
We are taller in the morning than we are at night
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When we go about through our day, the cartilage in our knees and spine press together which makes us shrink slightly. Once we are asleep and tucked nicely in bed, the cartilage is able to rest and go back to its original size. That’s why when we wake up in the morning, we are about 1cm taller than we were at night.
Goosebumps pop up when your skin tries to plump up your body hair to help keep you warm
Have you ever wondered why you get goosebumps? This weird reaction happens when small muscles in the skin’s hair follicles pull on the roots of the hair, causing strands to stand up. They can happen when you’re cold or when you’re shocked.
Human skin has the same amount of hair follicles as apes
Crazily enough, on average, humans have the same amount of hair on their bodies as other chimps and apes. Humans have about 5 million hair follicles, but most of the hair on our human bodies is almost invisible. The only difference is that human hair is a lot shorter and finer.
Humans can survive with only one half of their brain
Despite being a complex organ, the brain is able to adapt in the most amazing way. In a study done at the California Institute of Technology, it was found that people who’d had half of their brain removed were perfectly able to function because the remaining half of their brain became stronger. This is because the brain is able to form new networks and brain cell connections.
Blue eyes are actually a mutation
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There’s a certain mutation in the HERC2 gene that is partially responsible for blue-colored eyes. Those with blue eyes have one common ancestor they can trace their eye color back to. This DNA blip has been traced back by scientists to 6,000-10,000 years ago.
Only 25% of people can see all the distinct colors in the graph. If you see between 33 and 39 colors, that means you’re a tetrachromat
Not everyone can spot all the color shades in this picture. In fact, only 1 in 4 people can see all the colors in this graph. The more cones you have in your eyes, otherwise known as color receptors, the more distinctive colors you see.
Research suggests facial features might predict IQ in men depending on face length and the length between eyes
We can all admit we’ve judged a book by its cover. It’s also human nature to initially judge people by their physical appearance. Research done at Charles University in Prague suggests we can in fact predict a man’s IQ based on his face. It turns out that men with longer faces and wide-set eyes are viewed as more intelligent.
Babies have nearly 100 more bones than adults
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Although babies are miniature humans, the one thing that’s bigger about them is the number of bones they have. Babies are born with about 300 bones and adults have 206 bones. These extra bones in babies don’t just disappear, but rather fuse together as they grow older.
We are more similar to each other than we think: All humans are 99.9% percent genetically identical
We all like to believe we are unique in our own ways. But genetically speaking, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. All humans are 99.9% identical when it comes to their genetic makeup. The differences between you and another human being lie in the other 0.1%. Pretty crazy when you think about it.
Just like fingerprints, each human tongue has a unique tongue print
Just like our unique fingerprints, every tongue has unique identifying markers. Each tongue is different based on shape and surface texture. Based on tongue print research, it’s possible that the geometric shape and psychological texture of our tongues can help with identification purposes.
Humans glow but it’s not visible to the naked eye
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Have you ever seen a bioluminescent animal that emits light and gives it a beautiful glow? Well, humans also glow by a simialor process called biophoton emission. This is when chemical reactions in our cells produce very small amounts of light, but it can only be seen under ultra-sensitive cameras.
We don’t like listening to our own voice recording because our voice sounds higher and speech sounds slower than what we are used to
You ever cringe when you hear a voice recording of yourself? You aren’t alone, and you can blame physiology and psychology for that. When you hear your voice, you hear sound waves that have traveled and bounced back to your ear. But recordings lack that bounce, so your recorded voice sounds foreign to you.
The lines on the palm of our hands help the hand squeeze, stretch, fold and scrunch without squeezing the skin
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You may think the lines and crisis crosses on the palm of your hands serve no purpose. But these lines, known a palmar flexion creases which form when babies are developing in the womb, serve important functions. The lines on our hands help our skin adapt to all the activities we put them through throughout the day.
When you blush, the lining of your stomach blushes as well
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Ok, now this is a pretty interesting one. When you blush on the outside and get that rosy glow on your cheeks, that’s blood rushing to the skin on your face. The same thing happens on the inside, and blood rushes to the lining of your stomach, making it turn red.
9% of people taste soap when they eat cilantro
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You know those people who absolutely despise cilantro? That may be due to the 9% of the population that taste soap when they bite into these leafy greens. This is all because of genetics. Certain people have a variation in a group of their genes that gives them that soapy aftertaste.
“I have the 3 different types of fingerprints in a row- whorls, arches, and loops”
Not only do our unique fingerprints help criminal investigations, but they help us hold onto things and prevent things from slipping between our fingers. Only 5% of people have arched fingerprints whereas most people have looped or whorled fingerprints. We really are all unique.
If you rub garlic on your feet, you’ll taste it in your mouth in 30 minutes
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This is a weird one, but we can’t make this up. By rubbing garlic on the sole of your foot, the molecules responsible for garlic’s smell can go through the skin, into your bloodstream, and then travel to your mouth and nose where you’ll then be able to taste the garlic.
Only 2% of the world’s population naturally have red hair, making it the rarest hair color in the world
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Redheads are really that rare. For someone to have naturally red hair, both of their parents would need to have the gene. The highest number of redheads in the world is in Scotland, closely followed by Ireland. Luckily enough, redheads don’t turn grey but simply fade to white.
99% of people who are color blind are color deficient so they can’t see certain colors on the spectrum
Color blindness is actually more common than you may think! About 1 in 12 men are color blind as opposed to 1 in 200 women. This particular color blind evaluation tests how many animals you can see. May you want to test your own eyes. How many can you spot?
Our eyes see everything upside down
This is some wild stuff. Everything we see is made up of light reflected from what we are looking at. The front part of our eyes is curved, bending that light, which creates an upside-down image on the retina. But our brains are responsible for turning that image right way up.
Some people have one pupil bigger than the other
We’ve never seen anything quite like this. Anisocoria is a condition in which someone has unequal pupil size, and affects about 20% of the population. One pupil may be bigger than normal or one of the pupils may be smaller than normal.
Hitchhiker’s thumb allows it to bend backward past the normal range of motion
Hitchhiker’s thumb got its name for a reason. This kind of thumb is hypermobile, which allows it to bend in such a way. Believe it or not, this thumb functions perfectly fine and this condition is not painful. It is a recessive trait and is believed to be an inherited condition.
20% of people have a gap between their front teeth caused by teeth that are too small for the jaw
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The medical term for gaps in your teeth is called Diastema. It can happen between any of your teeth, but it’s most noticeable between the front teeth. Most often, the size of the teeth and jaw are genetic, so it is possible for diastema to run in families.
Splashing cold water on your face can calm you down by activating the vagus nerve, which slows down your heart rate
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Have you ever been worrying about something and can’t seem to calm down? You may want to try splashing some cold water on your face. Cold water activates the vagus nerve, slowing down your heart rate, quieting the nervous system, and making you feel calmer.
Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which people can hear music in color because they experience one sense through another
Synesthesia happens when there is more communication between sensory regions and is more common in artists, writers, and musicians. This response is also something you can’t help. If you hear a new piece of music, you could see color with no effort at all.
Just like a fingerprint, everyone has a unique scent
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Our sense of smell is way more powerful than we think. Our bodies have a signature odor, just as unique as our fingerprints. They’re like nametags, which help us distinguish an individual from another. Interestingly enough, we prefer scents that are least like our own.
Every year, you make enough saliva to fill two bathtubs
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Saliva may seem ordinary, but it’s anything but. Every day, we make one to two liters of saliva. During the day, our salivary glands are doing a lot of work, but they rest at night. This is one reason why you might crave an ice-cold drink in the middle of the night.
More germs are transferred from shaking hands than by kissing
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Would you think shaking hands is safer than kissing when it comes to spreading germs? Think again. In one investigation in the Netherlands, it was found that just a ten-second kiss transfers about 80 million bacteria, compared to 3,200 bacteria transferred by hands.
Humans are the only species that are able to create emotional tears
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Everyone cries. It’s a great release from emotional tension. Humans are the only animals that shed tears from emotions which separates us from other animals. Although not entirely clear, some have theorized that crying evolved as one of the numerous facial movements used to communicate.
The human body produces enough heat in only 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil
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Our bodies are basically huge furnaces. As weird as it may sound, humans produce heat throughout the day from many things, like exercising, metabolizing food, and just breathing. Our body is really showing us the laws of thermodynamics.
Your heart beats roughly 100,000 times a day
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This is wild. We don’t really think about how much work our heart does on a daily basis, but beating 100,000 times a day is something to be grateful for. That’s about 2,000 gallons of blood being sent through the body every day.
12 percent of people dream in black and white
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Yup, you read that right. There are people that dream entirely in black and white. Even stranger is that people used to dream in black and white a lot more before color tv was introduced. It just goes to show how impactful media can be in our lives, even when we go to sleep.
You have so many blood vessels, they could circle the globe
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Blood vessels carry your blood to every part of your body to make sure you are getting enough nutrients and oxygen, so they’re pretty important. Sure, your blood vessels may be small, but if they were laid out in a line, they’re about 60,000 miles in length and could wrap around the planet more than twice.
Your fingernails grow faster than your toenails
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Do you ever notice that you trim your fingernails more often than your toenails? That’s because your hands are closer to your heart than your feet. This means more blood pumps to your fingers than your toes, which translates to longer fingernails. That would also explain why nails grow slower in cold weather.
You’ll get a completely new skeleton in ten years
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The cells in your skeletal system are always regenerating, so the bones you have now will be fully regenerated in about a decade. So while old bone is removed, new fresh bone pieces are replaced. But as we age, the regeneration process does take longer.
Half of your hand strength lies in your pinkie
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We probably think our pinkie doesn’t have much use, but it plays a major part in hand strength. Your pinkie helps the thumbs to pinch and give strength to the other fingers. Without our trusty pinkie, we would lose about 50 percent of our hand strength.
Body position has an effect on your memory
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Overall, we know that bad posture is not good for us. But apparently, your slumped-over position at work doesn’t just mean a backache. An article published in Biofeedback explained that looking down makes it easier to remember negative memories while sitting up straight and looking up makes it easier to remember positive memories.
A blink is a micro nap
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Humans blink about 15 to 20 times per minute, and it’s not just to keep your eyes from drying or keeping them clean. A study done at Washington University found that blinking actually helps us increase our attention and gives ourselves a bit of time for our bodies to recharge.
‘Borborygmus’ is the word to describe the noise your stomach makes when you’re hungry
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We’ve all been in situations, whether in a meeting or during class, where our stomach makes a loud rumbling sound. Maybe you skipped breakfast, or maybe you’re just hangry. But there’s a word for that rumbling. Borborygmus is the technical term of those sounds that come from fluid and gas moving in your intestines tract.
Stomach acid is so strong, it could dissolve a razor blade
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This is a weird one. Your stomach has a lot going on in there. Surpringsnly enough, the primary gastric acid in your stomach, hydrochloric acid, is able to dissolve metal. Over 24 hours, stomach acid can reduce a razor blade’s original weight to about 63%.
You are probably more similar to your dad than your mom
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Us humans get equal amounts of genetic mutations from our parents that make us who we are. Maybe we inherited our mother’s eyes, but genetically speaking, we use more of the DNA that is passed down from our dads than from our moms.
It takes less effort to smile than it does to frown
There are 43 muscles in the face, but there isn’t really an accurate number for how many muscles it takes to either smile or frown. Everyone smiles and frowns differently. So while smiling doesn’t necessarily take fewer muscles than frowning, we do know that smiling boosts your mood and lowers stress muscles.
You can train yourself to raise one eyebrow
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On average, about 30 to 40 percent of people have this unique ability to raise one eyebrow, and about 24 percent of people are born with this skill. But if you really wanted to be able to mater this, there’s good news. You can train yourself to develop this talent by practice.
Raynaud’s Syndrome causes reduced blood flow to your fingers and toes
The Raynaud’s phenomenon is when blood vessels in your fingers, and in some cases your toes, temporarily overreact to cold temperatures. This can cause fingertips to turn white and is a lot more common in women than in men and for people that live in colder climates.
You can teach yourself how to roll your tongue
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Some people can roll their tongue every which way regardless of whether their parents can or not. Believe it or not, the ability to roll your tongue is not purely genetic. Interestingly enough, if you can’t roll your tongue now, it’s possible to practice until you can achieve a tongue roll.
20 to 30 percent of the world’s population has dimples, and in some cultures, they are seen as a sign of beauty
Sometimes, dimples are made from a change in facial muscles called the zygomaticus major, which is partly in charge of facial expression. Dimples are believed to be an inherited dominant trait, but they are so unpredictable, dimples can change over time.
Acne does not have an age restriction
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Believe it or not, acne isn’t reserved for our teenage years. Unfortunately, it can affect people even as they get older. Acne typically affects the face, chest, and back. Acne occurs when our hair follicles in the skin become clogged with oil, bacteria, and dead skin.
75 percent of adults need some form of vision correction
The majority of the population can’t see perfectly. We all wish we had 20/20 vision, but that’s just not the case. Thank god for glasses. About 64 percent of the population wear eyeglasses, while about 11 percent wear contact lenses. More so, nearsightedness is on the rise and is expected to reach 5 billion by 2050.
A human nose can detect more than 1 trillion scents
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We all know dogs have a very sharp sense of smell. But humans’ sense of smell is also very powerful. Also, women have a better sense of smell than men. This is because women have more cells, 16.2 million compared to 9.2 million, in the parts of their brain that are committed to the sense of smell.
Studies show that on average if you leave your beard untrimmed, it can grow up to 3 feet long
Genetics plays a very important role when it comes to the growth of a beard. There are other factors that depend on growth as well, such as race and age. Most men experience their biggest beard growth from 25-35 years old. It’s a process that takes patience and not going for the razor.
There are around 600 muscles in the human body
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The body is incredible. The three types of muscles that make up the muscular system, which include skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Each of these muscles is responsible for important functions, such as creating movement, moving food throughout the digestive tract, and pumping blood to your heart.
Our conscious mind may not even realize the information we store as long-term memory
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Long-term memory is the warehouse of information over a long period of time, like remembering an important day in your past. Usually, long-term memories are outside of our conscious mind. This stays out of our awareness, however, this can be brought to our attention when we need it.
The strongest and longest bone in the human body is the femur
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The femur is a bone in your thigh that goes from the hip and knee joints. The femur supports the body’s weight during exercise such as walking, running, and even standing. It makes up one-quarter of one’s height and is so strong, it’s almost as hard as concrete.
Wisdom teeth don’t serve any purpose
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Our ancestors used wisdom teeth specifically to help in chewing rough food like roots, meats, and leaves, but these gnarly teeth outserved their purpose, which is why many people get them removed. Many people have 1 to 4 wisdom teeth pulled, while 35% of the population is born without any wisdom teeth.
Sneezes can travel as fast as 100 mph
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Sneezing is our body’s response to getting rid of irritants from our nose and throat, such as pollen, smoke, or dust. While a cough can travel about 50 mph, sneezes are even faster at 100 mph. Along with that, there are about 100,000 droplets that come with that sneeze. Cover your mouth!
You’ll shed an average of 22 kilograms of skin in your lifetime
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Can you say gross? Our skin is the body’s largest organ, so it makes sense that we would shed that much. You don’t see it happening, but you lose between 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells daily. This is because your epidermis is always making new skin cells to replace the ones that are lost.
The human tongue has around 10,000 taste buds and they get replaced every two weeks
Humans love food, but have you ever wondered what makes your meals taste good? It’s all because of taste buds, which are those bumps on the surface of your tongue that are sensory organs. When we age, some of our taste buds don’t get replaced, and someone that’s older may only have about 5,000 working taste bud.
When in danger, your body is stronger than normal thanks to adrenaline
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On most days, the body is able to use 60% of its strength. However in situations of danger when our heart races faster and sends more oxygen to our muscles, you get a temporary energy boost and you can use 80% of our body’s strength. We can thank increased adrenaline for that.
One in every 200 people are born with an extra rib
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Every adult has 24 ribs, and they are easily counted by looking at x-rays. You most likely have 12 on each side, but there are some rare cases of people with a total of 25 ribs, and that extra rib is known as the cervical rib. It can be on either side and the cause is still unknown.
Mammals are the best endurance runners on the planet
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No, humans may not be the fastest animals out there, but when it comes to endurance running, we come on top. We are so good at it because of one unique human feature: sweating. Sweating helps to cool off the body which allows athletes to push themselves to the limit.
Our skin is covered in invisible stripes
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We aren’t making this us, but we are actually covered in invisible stripes that run down our arms and around the torso. The stripes are called Lines of Blaschko and scientists believe that they’re a result of how epidermal cells move in embryo growth.
Poking your belly button may give you the sensation of needing to pee
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Have you ever touched the inside of your belly button and had a sudden urge to go to the bathroom? That’s because your belly button is connected to fibers that lead to your spinal cord. This in turn stimulates the lining of the stomach, so you’ll interpret it as needing to pee.
Meditation can change the structure of the brain
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We know meditation is a powerful tool to lower stress and anxiety, but did you know it had an effect on the actual structure of your brain. It can thicken the pre-frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for awareness, concentration, and decision making. Just as we train our bodies in the gym, we can also train our brains.
Lack of sleep will kill you faster than lack of food
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Getting your z’s are way more important than food. Sleep deprivation can take a huge toll on our health, mood, and productivity. To get more sleep, you can go to bed earlier or wind down 45 minutes before hitting the pillow. We all feel better, more rested, and focussed with extra sleep. Guess we don’t have to feel bad about those naps anymore.