20 Facts about the human body that are unbelievable at first glance

Our body hides many mysteries. We bet you’ve wondered why people get hiccups. And how many mosquitoes does it take to suck all the blood out of a person? For all these (and many more) strange questions, we present this post with scientific answers.

O awesome.club compiled the most interesting facts about the human body and we are convinced that you would never suspect many of them.

A human and a slug have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Our DNA is 70% identical to that of slugs. A long time ago, all animals came from a common ancestor, just like plants: human and banana DNA coincide by 50%. So a person is half a banana or 40% cucumber. All living beings on Earth are, in a way, familiar, only at some point our development took a different path.

One in 200 people is born with an extra rib. Doctors call this quirk a cervical rib. It is located above the collarbone and causes almost no problems for those who have it.

ATMs are a part of our lives, but how many people disinfect their hands immediately after using them? Bacteriological tests carried out by scientists in the UK revealed that self-service terminals are as dirty as public toilets. By studying them in depth, pathogenic bacteria were found that are dangerous to human health.

Fingernails grow faster because they are in more contact with sunlight. On your main hand, they grow even faster than on the other, and the longest nail is always on your middle finger. In general, the bigger the finger, the bigger the nail, but no one is quite sure why.

Botulinum toxin injections paralyze the muscles in the face, causing wrinkles to disappear. However, scientists have recently discovered a curious effect, a consequence of these “beauty needles”: the inability to fully experience emotions. Facial expression directly affects emotional state, so the sensations of a person with limits at the time of their facial expressions are not as complete when compared to those who do not inject botulinum toxin.

The hiccup we inherit as a gift is due to our distant ancestors who lived 370 million years ago. They swam in the ocean and their bodies were “equipped” with gills and lungs at the same time (in Australia, even today, there are fish capable of breathing this way). With the help of a mechanism we call the hiccup, our ancestors protected their lungs from water penetration.

The risk of having a heart attack on Mondays increases by 20% for men and 15% for women. Most likely, this responds to the stress of the need to return to work. Not surprisingly, scientists warn that alcohol consumed over the weekend can also be a cause of a heart attack.

If you rub the soles of your feet with garlic, after about 30 minutes you will feel the taste in your mouth. And the smell, of course. All this happens because of allicin, an organic compound that is formed during the mechanical destruction process of garlic. Allicin is able to penetrate cell membranes, travel through the bloodstream and reach the taste buds. Therefore, for garlic fans, the odor of this food is felt not only on the breath and breath, but throughout the body, as the smell dissolves in the blood.

In the human body, we harbor enough blood to feed 1.2 to 1.8 million mosquitoes. It all depends on the height and weight of the victim, as well as the degree of hunger of these insects. A mosquito sucks approximately 0.003 ml of blood at a time, so it will take an entire army of these little vampires to completely absorb all the human blood supplies in a body. Although this possibility sounds like science fiction.

People with a full bladder lie more convincingly. A strong urge to go to the bathroom causes the person to focus on self-control and therefore ends up being better at lying. And, in addition, they also try to avoid superfluous movements until they manage to have their needs met. That’s why experts who conducted a scientific experiment believed the liars who wanted to go to the toilet.

70% of people kissing tilt their heads to the right. Who came to this conclusion was a German scientist who observed couples kissing in airports, railway stations and beaches. Perhaps this head position is associated with the fact that the person is right-handed.

Scientists claim that people with a high intellectual quotient (IQ) have really fun, brighter and longer-lasting dreams. But don’t be in a hurry to get mad if you can’t remember what you dreamed about last night: most people don’t remember their dreams and all because, on average, a dream only lasts a few seconds.

Norwegian scientists carried out an experiment with students: one group received sheets with printed text, while another received the same text on a computer screen in “PDF” format. What happened was that the students better assimilated the information printed on paper. Books have again won the battle against digital media.

Some people, after a hearty meal, start to hear a ringing in their ears. Many drinks and foods can affect the fluid level in the inner ear and generate noise. Excessive sweet and salty foods, as well as caffeine, can also cause temporary hearing impairment and even lead to dizziness and nausea.

The appendix, this dead-end cylinder-shaped organ connected to the cecum, has a bad reputation: it can cause a lot of problems, in case of inflammation, and even endanger a person’s life. Traditionally, the appendix was believed to be a vestigial organ, with no practical use. However, modern scientists have a different opinion: it is a safe “home” for the beneficial bacteria that live in the gut. In this area, useful microbes are stored, which, in any strange situation (for example, an intestinal infection), will “reset” the intestinal bacterial system to repopulate it with new beneficial bacteria.

Children grow irregularly: periods of rest are replaced by abrupt growth spurts when, in a few weeks, the child is able to grow up to 10 centimeters. However, there is an interesting aspect to take into account: in spring, children grow faster than in other seasons. It is estimated that this rapid growth is related to the activity of the sun.

The reason honey is easily absorbed by the human body is because bees have already digested it in the first instance. Honey is just the nectar already digested once in the bee’s goiter. It is made up of simple carbohydrates, which the human body absorbs completely, without putting off digestion until later.

The volume and size of the two lungs are completely different. This is so because of the location of the heart. The left lung is smaller and less heavy than the right, just for the heart to fit in the chest.

If the human eye were a digital camera, its resolution would be around 120-140 megapixels per eye. However, these pixels are unevenly distributed: for every square millimeter in the field of view, we find 200,000 color receptors, while in the peripheral region much less are observed.

The cornea of ​​a shark’s eye is so similar to that of a human that, with a certain development of technology, it could be used for a transplant.

What data surprised you the most? Share your opinion in the comments.