Archive

Topic: The body

Fact Your DNA would stretch to the sun and back many times over Two metres per cell, and you have tens of trillions of cells. 1 min read Fact Your stomach would digest itself without constant repair The lining is replaced every few days, because the alternative is being eaten from the inside. 1 min read Fact Humans have fewer genes than a water flea Around 20,000. The tiny crustacean Daphnia has about 31,000. 1 min read Fact Your skeleton is younger than you are Bone is not scaffolding. It is a slow river. 1 min read Fact Adults grew a new bone in the last century The fabella, behind the knee, is three times more common than it was in 1918. 1 min read Fact You began with about a hundred more bones than you have now Babies have roughly 300. Adults have 206. Nothing was lost. 1 min read Fact You are taller in the morning By around a centimetre, and it is gone by evening. 1 min read Fact A single human eye can detect a single photon The smallest possible quantity of light is not below your threshold. 1 min read Fact The strongest muscle in your body is in your jaw By force relative to size, the masseter wins. 1 min read Fact Mothers carry their children’s cells for decades Cells from a pregnancy cross into the mother and stay - sometimes for the rest of her life. 1 min read