- 3 hours ago
Ready to be blown away by some surprising facts about your own body? We’re diving into the weird and wonderful things that will make you totally rethink what it means to be human.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The heart continues beating on its own for around three minutes after being separated from its owner.
00:06It occurs because of a phenomenon called self-excitation, when something generates its own energy.
00:14When we appear in this world, we have 300 bones, but with time, some of them fuse, leaving us with
00:20around 206 bones.
00:22And still, some have extra bones in their skull structures.
00:25Those are wormian bones, which are basically extra bone pieces found within the joints of the skull.
00:32If you laid flat the respiratory tubes in the lungs, they would cover an area as large as a tennis
00:38court, all thanks to 33 generations of branching.
00:41The brain is as cool as the lungs.
00:44It has 86 billion neurons, nerve cells that send messages all over your body and allow you to do everything,
00:50from breathing to talking, eating and thinking, or doing sports.
00:53The brain also has up to 60 trillion synapses, the places where neurons connect and communicate with one another.
01:00That's more than all the leaves on all the trees in the world.
01:06And here's another fun fact.
01:08Your eyes are like car engines.
01:10They need fluids to function properly, just like an engine needs gasoline.
01:15So when you blink up to 20,000 times a day, you're basically giving your eyes a windshield wash.
01:22Have you ever blushed and felt your cheeks turn red?
01:25Well, did you know that your stomach lining can blush too?
01:29When you blush, there's an increased blood flow in your body, and that includes your stomach lining.
01:35It turns red because it has plenty of blood vessels.
01:38And when there's more blood than usual, it shows.
01:43Now, we all know that plastic is bad for the environment.
01:46But did you know that we can actually digest it in tiny quantities?
01:50However, our digestive system can't handle grass.
01:54Grazing animals have special teeth and several stomachs to process raw leaves and grass, while we're stuck with just one
02:02stomach.
02:04We all have two super-fast muscles that control our eyelids closing.
02:09They're actually the fastest muscles in our body, and they shut our eyes within a mere 0.1 second when
02:15triggered.
02:15And while we still don't know why we blink, we do know that women blink more often than men, and
02:21that we tend to blink in unison when watching a movie with friends.
02:25Maybe it's just a weird human thing.
02:28By the way, every time you eat something, your esophagus, the organ your food travels through to reach the stomach,
02:34moves in a series of wave-like contractions, pushing the food forward.
02:38This process is called peristalsis.
02:42Your fingers don't have any muscles whatsoever.
02:45To move them, you involve tendons connected to muscles in your hands and forearms.
02:50Some people, around 12% of women and almost no men, have four cones in their eyes.
02:56This condition is called tetrachromacy.
02:59People with this peculiarity can see a whopping 100 million colors.
03:04Your body glows, emitting tiny amounts of barely visible light.
03:08The product of biochemical reactions going on in your organism.
03:13The light intensity changes throughout the day.
03:16Unfortunately, you can't detect it with the unaided eye.
03:20Marfan syndrome is a genetic condition that affects the body's connective tissues, making them more elastic.
03:27This can make you unusually tall, have elongated limbs, and often be extremely flexible.
03:33And some people use this as an advantage in their careers.
03:37Javier Botet was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome at a young age, but he made a name for himself in the
03:43horror film industry.
03:45He can contort his body in such an eerie and unsettling way that this has landed him roles in numerous
03:51films, such as Mama, The Conjuring 2, It, and Slenderman.
03:56But Marfan syndrome is a spectrum disorder.
04:00While some people with the condition can live relatively normal lives, others may face serious health issues.
04:06The DEC2 gene mutation is a mutation that allows people to have just a few hours of sleep a night
04:13and still feel great.
04:15They don't get tired and never sleep in.
04:17On average, such people wake up at 4 or 5 a.m.
04:21No more than 5% of the world's population has this feature.
04:26Human embryos.
04:27The initial stage of development for a multicellular organism have a tail, and it usually disappears before birth, leaving us
04:34with a tailbone.
04:35In the future, this structure will probably vanish altogether, since it has no apparent purpose.
04:43People lose 30 to 40,000 skin cells every minute.
04:47It adds up to 43 to 57 million skin cells per day.
04:53But worry not.
04:54The epidermis, the top layer of your skin, replaces itself every 30 days or so.
04:59If this process happens faster, it can lead to skin flaking and irritation.
05:05The liver is a unique organ.
05:07It can regenerate after 60 to 70% is removed.
05:11At the same time, its shape may change afterward.
05:15It might sound like something out of a comic book, but humans can actually have super strength.
05:21Turns out, some accidental mutations can unleash titanic strength without any crazy workout routines.
05:29There are two proteins in our body, myostatin and activin A,
05:33that usually are secreted by muscle cells to suppress excessive growth.
05:37In other words, these two help regulate the size and number of your muscle cells,
05:42so you don't end up accidentally looking like Schwarzenegger.
05:46But as you can guess, some do end up like that.
05:49People with this genetic condition don't produce these proteins.
05:53Without hitting the gym, they can naturally grow their muscles extraordinarily large,
05:57resulting in super strength.
06:00It's called myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy.
06:03Sounds kind of dangerous, right?
06:05And it is.
06:06When you become a superman, there's also the risk of muscle imbalance,
06:10heart and joint issues, and other problems.
06:13When you swallow, it takes the food from 5 to 8 seconds to travel from the mouth down to the
06:19stomach.
06:21Your eyes have three kinds of cones, red, blue, and green.
06:26Thanks to them, you can perceive around 1 million colors.
06:30Your hard-working heart will beat around 2.5 to 3 billion times
06:35and pump approximately 100 million gallons of blood in your lifetime.
06:40Speaking of your skull, it isn't a solid structure.
06:44It consists of 22 bones.
06:468 of them protect the brain and 14 form the facial skeleton.
06:50And since we're on the topic of the human head,
06:53the part of your brain that's responsible for vision is in the back of your head.
06:57Interestingly, the right side of your brain controls the vision on the left side, and vice versa.
07:04Breathing isn't only about moving the air inside and outside.
07:09It's about the way you do it, because it can literally affect your face shape.
07:13If you breathe through your nose, you'll get well-defined cheekbones over time.
07:18It will also make your face wider, because your tongue will exert force against your jaw.
07:24If you breathe through your mouth, your tongue won't have a place to rest.
07:28It will change your facial structure as time goes by.
07:32Your face can be more narrow, and your cheekbones won't be that visible.
07:37Also, if you're a mouth breather, you'd probably tend to tilt your head backwards more.
07:42This way, you increase cranial contents in the back part of your brain,
07:46and directly change your entire posture, along with the shape of your neck and face.
07:53It's possible to taste your food without saliva.
07:56That's because the chemicals in your food must be dissolved in saliva before they get detected by your taste buds.
08:03By the way, each of your taste buds works as a mini-computer.
08:06It consists of up to 100 cells that analyze taste information.
08:12Anyway, speaking of food, eating too many carrots can indeed make your skin orange,
08:17because of the high amounts of beta-carotene this vegetable contains.
08:22If you have too much of this compound in your bloodstream,
08:25it'll gather in parts of your body with thicker skin,
08:27such as the soles of your feet, knees, elbows, palms, and even certain areas around your nose.
08:32But you can easily reverse this condition by eating fewer carrots.
08:38The chin muscles, a.k.a. the mentalis muscles, look like creepy, tiny tentacles.
08:44And still, they make it possible for you to create different facial expressions involving the lips, chin, and cheeks.
08:51Your small intestine is actually not so small.
08:54It's taller than you are, measuring from 9 to 16 feet.
08:59The cornea, that transparent front cover on your eyes, doesn't have any blood supply.
09:05It receives oxygen directly from the air.
09:08Our lungs are the only organs that can float on the water.
09:12All because they're made up of around 300 million balloon-like structures called alveoli.
09:19Your bones are four times harder than concrete.
09:22The strongest bone in your body is the femur.
09:26It can support up to 30 times the weight of a grown-up person.
09:30Even crazier is that our bones are made up of composite material,
09:34meaning they're both hard and elastic at the same time.
09:39The outer layer of your skin is thicker on your feet than on other parts of your body.
09:47The heart has its own electrical system and can continue beating even when it's disconnected from the body.
09:54The average lifespan of one eyebrow hair is four months.
10:00We spend 40% of our life with our eyes closed.
10:04Most of that time is when we're sleeping, but don't forget to count blinking too, or while driving.
10:10In an adult, the blood makes up 7 to 8% of the total body weight.
10:14About 55% of your blood is liquid plasma.
10:18The rest is red and white blood cells and platelets.
10:21They form clots and prevent bleeding.
10:25The density of your brain increases throughout your whole life,
10:28all because new neural connections pop up.
10:31And they appear because the structure of your brain keeps changing too.
10:36The same process of changing will occur to your feet too.
10:40They're likely to become bigger with time.
10:42When people grow older, ligaments and tendons in their feet weaken.
10:46This makes the arches flatter and feet become wider and longer.
10:51People who live to be 110 years and older have more immune cells, called T-helpers, than the average person.
10:58These cells are likely to protect them from viruses and other health problems.
11:04The human brain is sometimes called a random thought generator for a reason.
11:10More than 48 thoughts appear in your brain in just one minute.
11:14It's almost 3,000 thoughts per hour and 69,000 per day.
11:19You know these before and after makeovers?
11:22Well, if you saw a pic of an average human who lived about 1 million years ago,
11:26compared to a pic of an average human who lives today, you'd be astonished.
11:31And get this, it's a makeover performed by Mother Nature.
11:35Like back in the day, the earliest human species were basically tiny, with long arms and short legs.
11:42They needed a big digestive tract to handle all those plants they were chowing down on.
11:48And their rib cages were super wide to make room for all the organs breaking down their food.
11:55Time went by and some of these humans started adapting to hot climates.
11:59And they all got narrow and leggy to stay cool.
12:02They started eating meat and other quick-to-digest foods,
12:05which meant they could have smaller digestive tracts and use more energy for their tall bodies and big brains.
12:12And when humans spread to colder climates, they evolved short, wide bodies to conserve heat.
12:18But they still loved their raw meat and cooked food,
12:21which could be easily processed in a short digestive tract.
12:25Check out this skeleton of an 8- to 9-year-old Homo erectus kid from East Africa.
12:30He was already 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 106 pounds.
12:36If he had grown up, he could have been almost 6 feet tall.
12:40His lean body was perfect for hot, dry environments.
12:44And then there were the Neanderthals, who were only about 5 foot 4 inches tall on average.
12:50They had short, broad bodies that were great for dealing with winter cold and even ice ages.
12:58Speaking of the brain, it can decide what sounds to focus on when you're in a loud place.
13:03Thanks to this ability, you can shut out all other voices and concentrate on the person you're listening to.
13:09In most cases, hiccups are harmless and resolved by themselves within a couple of minutes.
13:15But if you want to avoid this condition, you should know that it might occur because of temperature changes.
13:22There's a bond between your digestive system and your brain, the gut-brain axis.
13:27This is the main reason why stress or brain issues can affect the way your body digests food.
13:34These days, humans have softer diets and, consequently, smaller jaws.
13:40That's why wisdom teeth aren't really necessary, and around 20% of people don't have all four of them.
13:47The vomeronasal organ helps some animals detect pheromones.
13:51Some have vestigial VNO too, but it's mostly non-functional and is likely to disappear with time.
14:00You flex that strong handshake and think it's all because of your gym grind?
14:04Ha! Turns out, your pinky finger is the real MVP.
14:07No joke!
14:09Believe it or not, that little finger packs a punch and is responsible for 50% of your hand strength.
14:16Who knew the underdog could be such a powerhouse?
14:21Your toes are like two little homies that carry almost half of your body weight,
14:25and don't even listen to people who say you don't need them.
14:28Your toes are the most important guys when it comes to walking and pushing you forward.
14:35Our hair color is easily explained by jeans.
14:38There are not more than 2% of people with natural red hair.
14:42They're followed by blondes, about 3%, and by all the varieties of brown shades, only about 11%.
14:48The vast majority goes to black hair, including very dark brown.
14:56Who knew that nails had a secret talent besides helping us pick up tiny objects and peel off stickers?
15:02They also give us a structure to press against so we know how firmly to hold anything.
15:08Talk about multi-talented.
15:10Move over, Rapunzel.
15:11It's not just our hair and nails that can grow.
15:13Our liver can regenerate itself from just 51% of its original size back to full size.
15:20But don't go damaging it too much or you'll end up with scars.
15:24In the future, people are likely to change due to extensive use of technology.
15:29So we might have text claws, cramping from gadget use, and 90-angle elbows from holding our devices.
15:37Besides, there's a theory that humans are likely to get smaller to conserve energy in our increasingly crowded world.
15:44Your body maintains a very careful water balance, and if it loses just 1% of water, you start feeling
15:51thirsty.
15:53Your brain can process up to 1,000 words per minute while you're reading.
15:57Rapid eye movements, saccades, help us absorb information more quickly.
16:03As for your tongue, together with your lips and teeth, it allows you to say more than 90 words per
16:09minute using over 20 various movements.
16:13Your body constantly converts food into energy.
16:161 calorie is equal to around 4,200 joules.
16:20And that's how much you need to change the temperature of 2.2 pounds of water by 1 kelvin.
16:27People have as many hairs on their bodies as chimpanzees.
16:30The only difference is that human body hair is mostly useless and so fine that it's almost impossible to see.
16:39Who would have thought that tomatoes have more genes than humans?
16:43But don't worry, it's not the number of genes that matters.
16:46It's how they all work together.
16:48So go ahead and enjoy that tomato sauce on your pizza.
16:53Hold your nose the next time you eat and see how much your taste buds fade.
16:57It turns out that the nose is actually responsible for 75 to 95% of our taste perception.
17:05So don't underestimate the power of those sniffers.
17:08Keep your mouth hydrated or your taste buds won't work properly.
17:12Saliva triggers chemical reactions with enzymes that break down the food as soon as it enters your mouth.
17:18So drink up and savor those flavors.
17:22Forget about distinguishing between 10,000 smells.
17:26Recent research shows that we can actually differentiate between over a trillion smells.
17:32And not only that, but smells can evoke some distant memories too.
17:36So next time you catch a whiff of something familiar, take a moment to reminisce.
17:43When you're snoozing away, your sense of smell goes on vacation too.
17:47So even if your room smells like a dumpster fire, you won't even notice it.
17:52Sweet dreams, right?
17:55And speaking of dreams, did you ever wonder why some of them are in black and white,
18:00while others are like a rainbow explosion?
18:02Well, apparently it all depends on the TV you watched as a kid.
18:07So I guess your grandparents had some pretty boring dreams, huh?
18:12Chromesthesia is seeing colors when you're listening to music.
18:15It's a kind of synesthesia, a phenomenon when people have several senses mixed.
18:20Some of them perceive numbers in different colors.
18:23Others can taste words.
18:26People have more than five basic senses.
18:28Don't forget about the sense of space, the sense of pain, the sense of balance in time,
18:33the sense of temperature around and in the body, and many others.
18:38Your teeth are the only part of your body that can't repair itself.
18:42But the enamel which covers them is one of the toughest things in the human body.
18:47After growing several human taste cells in the lab,
18:50scientists found out that they had an ability to smell.
18:54In each of them, there were a few molecules similar to the ones found in the cells in your nose.
18:59Apparently, our senses of smell and taste are even more connected than we thought before.
19:06Now let's talk about listening to your heart.
19:09Not only is it a great metaphor for following your dreams,
19:12but it can also give you away if you're lying.
19:16Yeah, your heart rate starts racing like Usain Bolt when you're fibbing.
19:21Okay, brace yourself for this one.
19:23Even if you brush your teeth like a champ and use mouthwash like it's going out of style,
19:28your mouth is still a germ hotspot.
19:31Gross, right?
19:32But don't worry.
19:33Most of those bacteria are actually good for us.
19:36And keep the bad stuff away.
19:38But wait, there's more.
19:40The belly button is actually the second dirtiest place on our bodies.
19:44Yeah, I know.
19:45Who knew?
19:46Since we don't really use it after we're born,
19:49it becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of icky stuff.
19:52It's got over 2,300 bacterial species living in there.
19:56So maybe it's time to give our belly button some extra TLC.
Comments