1.
Nerve impulses to and from the
brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so
fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It's due to
the superspeedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your
body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury
sports car.
2.
The brain operates on the same
amount of power as 10watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over
your head when a great thought occurs isn't too far off the mark. Your brain
generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you're sleeping.
3.
The human brain cell can hold 5
times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other
encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive
amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to
be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain,
containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your
brain's memory power pretty darn impressive.
4.
Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen
that enters your bloodstream. The brain only makes up about 2% of our body
mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it
extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep
to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.
5.
The brain is much more active at
night than during the day. Logically, you would think that all the moving
around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a
daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than,
say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your
brain turns on. Scientists don't yet know why this is but you can thank the
hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams.
6.
Scientists say the higher your
I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don't take it as a sign you're
mentally lacking if you can't recall your dreams. Most of us don't remember
many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 23
seconds–barely long enough to register.
7.
Neurons continue to grow
throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and
neural tissue couldn't grow or regenerate. While it doesn't act in the same
manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow
throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and
the illnesses that affect it.
8.
Information travels at different
speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There
are a few different types within the body and transmission along these
different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.
9.
The brain itself cannot feel
pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn
yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain.
That doesn't mean your head can't hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of
tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can
give you a pounding headache.
10.
80% of the brain is water. Your
brain isn't the firm, gray mass you've seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a
squishy, pink and jellylike organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water
content of the tissue. So the next time you're feeling dehydrated get a drink
to keep your brain hydrated.
11.
Facial hair grows faster than any
other hair on the body. If you've ever had a covering of stubble on your face
as you're clocking out at 5 o'clock you're probably pretty familiar with this.
In fact, if the average man never shaved his beard it would grow to over 30
feet during his lifetime, longer than a killer whale.
12.
Every day the average person
loses 60100 strands of hair. Unless you're already bald, chances are good that
you're shedding pretty heavily on a daily basis. Your hair loss will vary in
accordance with the season, pregnancy, illness, diet and age.
13.
Women's hair is about half the
diameter of men's hair. While it might sound strange, it shouldn't come as too
much of a surprise that men's hair should be coarser than that of women. Hair
diameter also varies on average between races, making hair plugs on some men
look especially obvious.
14.
One human hair can support 3.5
ounces. That's about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds
of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more
plausible.
15.
The fastest growing nail is on
the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will
grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related
to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest
and shortest the slowest.
16.
There are as many hairs per
square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. Humans are not quite the naked apes
that we're made out to be. We have lots of hair, but on most of us it's not
obvious as a majority of the hairs are too fine or light to be seen.
17.
Blondes have more hair. They're
said to have more fun, and they definitely have more hair. Hair color
determines how dense the hair on your head is. The average human has 100,000
hair follicles, each of which is capable of producing 20 individual hairs
during a person's lifetime. Blondes average 146,000 follicles while people with
black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. Those with brown hair fit the
average with 100,000 follicles and redheads have the least dense hair, with
about 86,000 follicles.
18.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times
faster than toenails. If you notice that you're trimming your fingernails much
more frequently than your toenails you're not just imagining it. The nails that
get the most exposure and are used most frequently grow the fastest. On
average, nails on both the toes and fingers grow about onetenth of an inch each
month.
19.
The lifespan of a human hair is 3
to 7 years on average. While you quite a few hairs each day, your hairs
actually have a pretty long life providing they aren't subject to any trauma.
Your hairs will likely get to see several different haircuts, styles, and even
possibly decades before they fall out on their own.
20.
You must lose over 50% of your
scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone. You lose hundreds of hairs a day
but you'll have to lose a lot more before you or anyone else will notice. Half
of the hairs on your pretty little head will have to disappear before your
impending baldness will become obvious to all those around you.
21.
Human hair is virtually
indestructible. Aside from it's flammability, human hair decays at such a slow
rate that it is practically nondisintegrative. If you've ever wondered how your
how clogs up your pipes so quick consider this: hair cannot be destroyed by
cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to
many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.
22.
The largest internal organ is the
small intestine. Despite being called the smaller of the two intestines, your
small intestine is actually four times as long as the average adult is tall. If
it weren't looped back and forth upon itself it wouldn't fit inside the
abdominal cavity.
23.
The human heart creates enough
pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. No wonder you can feel your heartbeat so
easily. Pumping blood through your body quickly and efficiently takes quite a
bit of pressure resulting in the strong contractions of the heart and the thick
walls of the ventricles which push blood to the body.
24.
The acid in your stomach is
strong enough to dissolve razorblades. While you certainly shouldn't test the
fortitude of your stomach by eating a razorblade or any other metal object for
that matter, the acids that digest the food you eat aren't to be taken lightly.
Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at
dissolving the pizza you had for dinner but can also eat through many types of
metal.
25.
The human body is estimated to
have 60,000 miles of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, the distance
around the earth is about 25,000 miles, making the distance your blood vessels
could travel if laid end to end more than two times around the earth.
26.
You get a new stomach lining
every three to four days. The mucuslike cells lining the walls of the stomach
would soon dissolve due to the strong digestive acids in your stomach if they
weren't constantly replaced. Those with ulcers know how painful it can be when
stomach acid takes its toll on the lining of your stomach.
27.
The surface area of a human lung
is equal to a tennis court. In order to more efficiently oxygenate the blood,
the lungs are filled with thousands of branching bronchi and tiny, grapelike
alveoli. These are filled with microscopic capillaries which oxygen and carbon
dioxide. The large amount of surface area makes it easier for this exchange to
take place, and makes sure you stay properly oxygenated at all times.
28.
Women's hearts beat faster than
men's.The main reason for this is simply that on average women tend to be
smaller than men and have less mass to pump blood to. But women's and men's
hearts can actually act quite differently, especially when experiencing trauma
like a heart attack, and many treatments that work for men must be adjusted or
changed entirely to work for women.
29.
Scientists have counted over 500
different liver functions. You may not think much about your liver except after
a long night of drinking, but the liver is one of the body's hardest working,
largest and busiest organs. Some of the functions your liver performs are:
production of bile, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis,
and detoxification.
30.
The aorta is nearly the diameter
of a garden hose. The average adult heart is about the size of two fists,
making the size of the aorta quite impressive. The artery needs to be so large
as it is the main supplier of rich, oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
31.
Your left lung is smaller than
your right lung to make room for your heart. For most people, if they were
asked to draw a picture of what the lungs look like they would draw both
looking roughly the same size. While the lungs are fairly similar in size, the
human heart, though located fairly centrally, is tilted slightly to the left
making it take up more room on that side of the body and crowding out that poor
left lung.
32.
You could remove a large part of
your internal organs and survive. The human body may appear fragile but it's
possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75
percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and
virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too
great, but the missing organs wouldn't kill you.
33.
The adrenal glands change size
throughout life. The adrenal glands, lying right above the kidneys, are
responsible for releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In the
seventh month of a fetus' development, the glands are roughly the same size as
the kidneys. At birth, the glands have shrunk slightly and will continue to do
so throughout life. In fact, by the time a person reaches old age, the glands
are so small they can hardly be seen.
34.
Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph.
There's a good reason why you can't keep your eyes open when you sneeze–that
sneeze is rocketing out of your body at close to 100 mph. This is, of course, a
good reason to cover your mouth when you sneeze.
35.
Coughs clock in at about 60 mph.
Viruses and colds get spread around the office and the classroom quickly during
cold and flu season. With 60 mph coughs spraying germs far and wide, it's no
wonder.
36.
Women blink twice as many times
as men do. That's a lot of blinking every day. The average person, man or
woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.
37.
A full bladder is roughly the
size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the
call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400800 cc of fluid but most
people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc.
38.
Approximately 75% of human waste
is made of water. While we might typically think that urine is the liquid part
of human waste products, the truth is that what we consider solid waste is
actually mostly water as well. You should be thankful that most waste is fairly
waterfilled, as drier harder stools are what cause constipation and are much
harder and sometimes painful to pass.
39.
Feet have 500,000 sweat glands
and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day. With that kind of
sweatproducing power it's no wonder that your gym shoes have a stench that can
peel paint. Additionally, men usually have much more active sweat glands than
women.
40.
During your lifetime, you will
produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Saliva plays an important
part in beginning the digestive process and keeping the mouth lubricated, and
your mouth produces quite a bit of it on a daily basis.
41.
The average person expels
flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you'd like to think you're too dignified
to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few times a
day. Digestion causes the body to release gases which can be painful if trapped
in the abdomen and not released.
42.
Earwax production is necessary
for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it's
actually a very important part of your ear's defense system. It protects the
delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans
and lubricates the ear canal.
43.
On any given day, intercourse
takes place 120 million times on earth. Humans are a quickly proliferating
species, and with about 4% of the world's population having intercourse on any
given day, it's no wonder that birth rates continue to increase in many places
all over the world.
44.
The largest cell in the human
body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. While you can't see
skin cells or muscle cells, the ovum is typically large enough to be seen with
the naked eye with a diameter of about a millimeter. The sperm cell, on the
other hand, is tiny, consisting of little more than nucleus.
45.
The three things pregnant women
dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants.
Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings and many other unexpected
changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types of dreams women have
and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but many women also
dream of water, giving birth or even have violent dreams.
46.
Your teeth start growing 6 months
before you are born. While few babies are born with teeth in place, the teeth
that will eventually push through the gums of young children are formed long
before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the fetus starts to
form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.
47.
Babies are always born with blue
eyes. The color of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents,
but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is
the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn's eyes often needs time after
birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light,
later revealing the baby's true eye color.
48.
Babies are, pound for pound,
stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly couldn't pull a covered wagon at
its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might very well
be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny
creatures, so watch out for those kicks.
49.
One out of every 2,000 newborn
infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing mothers may cringe at this
fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has already erupted and
sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of
choppers comes in.
50.
A fetus acquires fingerprints at
the age of three months. When only a small fraction of the way through its
development, a fetus will have already developed one of the most unique human
traits: fingerprints. At only 613 weeks of development, the whorls of what will
be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will
not change throughout the person's life and will be one of the last things to
disappear after death.
51.
Every human spent about half an
hour as a single cell. All life has to begin somewhere, and even the largest
humans spent a short part of their lives as a single celled organism when sperm
and egg cells first combine. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly
dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.
52.
Most men have erections every
hour to hour and a half during sleep. Most people's bodies and minds are much
more active when they're sleeping than they think. The combination of blood
circulation and testosterone production can cause erections during sleep and
they're often a normal and necessary part of REM sleep.
53.
After eating too much, your
hearing is less sharp. If you're heading to a concert or a musical after a big
meal you may be doing yourself a disservice. Try eating a smaller meal if you
need to keep your hearing pitch perfect.
54.
About one third of the human race
has 2020 vision. Glasses and contact wearers are hardly alone in a world where
two thirds of the population have less than perfect vision. The amount of
people with perfect vision decreases further as they age.
55.
If saliva cannot dissolve
something, you cannot taste it. In order for foods, or anything else, to have a
taste, chemicals from the substance must be dissolved by saliva. If you don't
believe it, try drying off your tongue before tasting something.
56.
Women are born better smellers
than men and remain better smellers over life. Studies have shown that women
are more able to correctly pinpoint just what a smell is. Women were better
able to identify citrus, vanilla, cinnamon and coffee smells. While women are
overall better smellers, there is an unfortunate 2% of the population with no
sense of smell at all.
57.
Your nose can remember 50,000
different scents. While a bloodhound's nose may be a million times more
sensitive than a human's, that doesn't mean that the human sense of smell is
useless. Humans can identify a wide variety of scents and many are strongly
tied to memories.
58.
Even small noises cause the
pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons,
watchmakers and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered
by uninvited noise. The sound causes their pupils to change focus and blur
their vision, making it harder to do their job well.
59.
Everyone has a unique smell,
except for identical twins. Newborns are able to recognize the smell of their
mothers and many of us can pinpoint the smell of our significant others and
those we are close to. Part of that smell is determined by genetics, but it's
also largely do to environment, diet and personal hygiene products that create
a unique chemistry for each person.
60.
The ashes of a cremated person
average about 9 pounds. A big part of what gives the human body weight is the
water trapped in our cells. Once cremated, that water and a majority of our
tissues are destroyed, leaving little behind.
61.
Nails and hair do not continue to
grow after we die. They do appear longer when we die, however, as the skin
dehydrates and pulls back from the nail beds and scalp.
62.
By the age of 60, most people
will have lost about half their taste buds. Perhaps you shouldn't trust your
grandma's cooking as much as you do. Older individuals tend to lose their
ability to taste, and many find that they need much more intense flavoring in
order to be able to fully appreciate a dish.
63.
Your eyes are always the same
size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing. When babies look up
at you with those big eyes, they're the same size that they'll be carrying
around in their bodies for the rest of their lives. Their ears and nose,
however, will grow throughout their lives and research has shown that growth
peaks in seven year cycles.
64.
By 60 years of age, 60percent of
men and 40percent of women will snore. If you've ever been kept awake by a
snoring loved one you know the sound can be deafening. Normal snores average
around 60 decibels, the noise level of normal speech, intense snores can reach
more than 80 decibels, the approximate level caused by a jackhammer breaking up
concrete.
65.
A baby's head is onequarter of
it's total length, but by age 25 will only be oneeighth of its total length. As
it turns out, our adorably oversized baby heads won't change size as
drastically as the rest of our body. The legs and torso will lengthen, but the
head won't get much longer.
66.
Monday is the day of the week
when the risk of heart attack is greatest. Yet another reason to loathe
Mondays! A ten year study in Scotland
found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day
of the week. Researchers theorize that it's a combination of too much fun over
the weekend with the stress of going back to work that causes the increase.
67.
Humans can make do longer without
food than sleep. While you might feel better prepared to stay up all night
partying than to give up eating, that feeling will be relatively short lived.
Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months
without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived
people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological
changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has
ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was
awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was
doing.
68.
A simple, moderately severe
sunburn damages the blood vessels extensively. How extensively? Studies have
shown that it can take four to fifteen months for them to return to their
normal condition. Consider that the next time you're feeling too lazy to apply
sunscreen before heading outside.
69.
Over 90% of diseases are caused
or complicated by stress. That high stress job you have could be doing more than
just wearing you down each day. It could also be increasing your chances of
having a variety of serious medical conditions like depression, high blood
pressure and heart disease.
70.
A human head remains conscious
for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated. While it might be
gross to think about, the blood in the head may be enough to keep someone alive
and conscious for a few seconds after the head has been separated from the
body, though reports as to the accuracy of this are widely varying.
71.
It takes 17 muscles to smile and
43 to frown. Unless you're trying to give your face a bit of a workout, smiling
is a much easier option for most of us. Anyone who's ever scowled, squinted or
frowned for a long period of time knows how it tires out the face which doesn't
do a thing to improve your mood.
72.
Babies are born with 300 bones,
but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206. The reason for this is that many
of the bones of children are composed of smaller component bones that are not
yet fused like those in the skull. This makes it easier for the baby to pass
through the birth canal. The bones harden and fuse as the children grow.
73.
We are about 1 cm taller in the
morning than in the evening. The cartilage between our bones gets compressed by
standing, sitting and other daily activities as the day goes on, making us just
a little shorter at the end of the day than at the beginning.
74.
The strongest muscle in the human
body is the tongue. While you may not be able to bench press much with your
tongue, it is in fact the strongest muscle in your body in proportion to its
size. If you think about it, every time you eat, swallow or talk you use your
tongue, ensuring it gets quite a workout throughout the day.
75.
The hardest bone in the human
body is the jawbone. The next time someone suggests you take it on the chin,
you might be well advised to take their advice as the jawbone is one of the
most durable and hard to break bones in the body.
76.
You use 200 muscles to take one
step. Depending on how you divide up muscle groups, just to take a single step
you use somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 muscles. That's a lot of work for
the muscles considering most of us take about 10,000 steps a day.
77.
The tooth is the only part of the
human body that can't repair itself. If you've ever chipped a tooth you know
just how sadly true this one is. The outer layer of the tooth is enamel which
is not a living tissue. Since it's not alive, it can't repair itself, leaving
your dentist to do the work instead.
78.
It takes twice as long to lose
new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it. Lazy people out
there shouldn't use this as motivation to not work out, however. It's
relatively easy to build new muscle tissue and get your muscles in shape, so if
anything, this fact should be motivation to get off the couch and get moving.
79.
Bone is stronger than some steel.
This doesn't mean your bones can't break of course, as they are much less dense
than steel. Bone has been found to have a tensile strength of 20,000 psi while
steel is much higher at 70,000 psi. Steel is much heavier than bone, however,
and pound for pound bone is the stronger material.
80.
The feet account for one quarter
of all the human body's bones. You may not give your feet much thought but they
are home to more bones than any other part of your body. How many? Of the two
hundred or so bones in the body, the feet contain a whopping 52 of them.
81.
About 32 million bacteria call
every inch of your skin home. Germaphobes don't need to worry however, as a
majority of these are entirely harmless and some are even helpful in
maintaining a healthy body.
82.
Humans shed and regrow outer skin
cells about every 27 days. Skin protects your delicate internal organs from the
elements and as such, dries and flakes off completely about once a month so
that it can maintain its strength. Chances are that last month's skin is still
hanging around your house in the form of the dust on your bookshelf or under
the couch.
83.
Three hundred million cells die
in the human body every minute. While that sounds like a lot, it's really just
a small fraction of the cells that are in the human body. Estimates have placed
the total number of cells in the body at 1050 trillion so you can afford to
lose a few hundred million without a hitch.
84.
Humans shed about 600,000
particles of skin every hour. You may not think much about losing skin if yours
isn't dry or flaky or peeling from a sunburn, but your skin is constantly
renewing itself and shedding dead cells.
85.
Every day an adult body produces
300 billion new cells. Your body not only needs energy to keep your organs up
and running but also to constantly repair and build new cells to form the
building blocks of your body itself.
86.
Every tongue print is unique. If
you're planning on committing a crime, don't think you'll get away with leaving
a tongue print behind. Each tongue is different and yours could be unique
enough to finger you as the culprit.
87.
Your body has enough iron in it
to make a nail 3 inches long. Anyone who has ever tasted blood knows that it
has a slightly metallic taste. This is due to the high levels of iron in the
blood. If you were to take all of this iron out of the body, you'd have enough
to make a small nail and very severe anemia.
88.
The most common blood type in the
world is Type O. Blood banks find it valuable as it can be given to those with
both type A and B blood. The rarest blood type, AH or Bombay blood due to the location of its
discovery, has been found in less than hundred people since it was discovered.
89.
Human lips have a reddish color
because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin. The
blood in these capillaries is normally highly oxygenated and therefore quite
red. This explains why the lips appear pale when a person is anemic or has lost
a great deal of blood. It also explains why the lips turn blue in very cold
weather. Cold causes the capillaries to constrict, and the blood loses oxygen
and changes to a darker color.
90.
The colder the room you sleep in,
the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream. It isn't entirely
clear to scientists why this is the case, but if you are opposed to having
nightmares you might want to keep yourself a little toastier at night.
91.
Tears and mucus contain an enzyme
(lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria. This is to your
advantage, as the mucus that lines your nose and throat, as well as the tears
that wet your eyes are helping to prevent bacteria from infecting those areas
and making you sick.
92.
Your body gives off enough heat
in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil. If you've seen the
Matrix you are aware of the energy potentially generated by the human body. Our
bodies expend a large amount of calories keeping us at a steady 98.6 degrees,
enough to boil water or even cook pasta.
93.
Your ears secrete more earwax
when you are afraid than when you aren't. The chemicals and hormones released
when you are afraid could be having unseen effects on your body in the form of
earwax. Studies have suggested that fear causes the ears to produce more of the
sticky substance, though the reasons are not yet clear.
94.
It is not possible to tickle
yourself. Even the most ticklish among us do not have the ability to tickle
ourselves. The reason behind this is that your brain predicts the tickle from
information it already has, like how your fingers are moving. Because it knows
and can feel where the tickle is coming from, your brain doesn't respond in the
same way as it would if someone else was doing the tickling.
95.
The width of your armspan
stretched out is the length of your whole body. While not exact down to the
last millimeter, your armspan is a pretty good estimator of your height.
96.
Humans are the only animals to
produce emotional tears. In the animal world, humans are the biggest crybabies,
being the only animals who cry because they've had a bad day, lost a loved one,
or just don't feel good.
97.
Righthanded people live, on
average, nine years longer than lefthanded people do. This doesn't have a
genetic basis, but is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines
and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed,
making them somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of
accidents and deaths each year.
98.
Women burn fat more slowly than
men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Most men have a much easier time
burning fat than women. Women, because of their reproductive role, generally
require a higher basic body fat proportion than men, and as a result their
bodies don't get rid of excess fat at the same rate as men.
99.
Koalas and primates are the only
animals with unique fingerprints. Humans, apes and koalas are unique in the
animal kingdom due to the tiny prints on the fingers of their hands. Studies on
primates have suggested that even cloned individuals have unique fingerprints.
100.
The indentation in the middle of
the area between the nose and the upper lip has a name. It is called the
philtrum. Scientists have yet to figure out what purpose this indentation
serves, though the ancient Greeks thought it to be one of the most erogenous
places on the body.
101.
Most people produce around 1.7
litres (3 pints) of urine a day. You will produce about 33,000 litres (8,700
gallons) of urine in your life. It would take 20 minutes to pour all the human
urine produced in a single day over the Niagara
Falls.
