Weird Facts About the Human Body For Halloween
From miles of blood vessels to bone regeneration, the human body is packed with fascinating facts. To celebrate Halloween, we’ve put together this list of some of our favorite scary facts about humanity’s bodies.
As an infant, you had more bones than what exists today. Over time, as you grow, some of those baby bones meld together to form larger ones.
1. Humans are the only animals that breathe through their mouths.
Humans stand out among animals by breathing through their mouths alone – this ability stems from our short throat and upright tongue, unlike lower animals with longer throats and horizontal tongues.
Humans also breathe through our noses, but this method doesn’t work as efficiently due to having smaller nasal chambers than lower animals and heated and humid air in these chambers making breathing through the nose difficult and tiring.
Humans are unique creatures. Humans possess one peculiar trait no other animal has: the ability to blink both eyes simultaneously. This occurs because each side of their brain controls different areas of the body; for example, left eye control lies with right side while right eye is controlled by left.
Researchers have noted the unique scent that human bodies emit; in particular, identical twins have a distinctive odor which can even be detected without matching clothes being worn. Furthermore, bacteria, fungi, and viruses all play an integral part in determining our bodies’ unique odor.
Humans possess a special reflex known as the diving reflex that allows them to shut off bodily functions when submerged in water, helping prevent drowning. Its activation by the brain can be caused by almost anything such as smelled food or listening to music.
People use 17 muscles when smiling and 43 when frowning; 12 hours is the average time it takes the body to digest food; nose and ears continue to grow throughout life; for example, the nose may reach 40 cm long! And don’t forget: your ear wax could actually be sweat!
2. Humans are the only animals that have a heartbeat.
Human bodies are remarkable; filled with millions of blood vessels and bones that can regenerate back to their original states, unique functions that help us stay healthy, and sometimes odd functions to keep us alive. With Halloween fast approaching, now is an excellent opportunity to investigate some of these mysterious happenings that take place inside us – from hiccups to ghostly noises – the human body truly is an enchanted land!
The human heart beats approximately 100,000 times daily – more than enough power for the entire planet! Our cardiovascular system relies on it for pumping blood around our bodies; specifically four valves and several arteries and veins connected by four venous septa (inner tubes). Together these organs pump around 2,000 gallons of blood each day!
Your heart has to work harder if there is too much blood in your system; an average person typically contains around 250.000 cells that circulate throughout their bodies and contain oxygen, sugar, fats, proteins and salts.
Your brain consumes about one quarter of your total daily energy; when sleeping, this figure jumps further. Your heart is one of the hardest working muscles in your body and pumps approximately 2,500 gallons of blood every day!
Your skin color is determined by how much melanin your body produces; those who produce more will have darker complexions. A human lung has an area covering 70 square meters.
Food takes approximately 12 hours for our bodies to process completely. The staples or stirrup bone is found in the middle ear and measures only 2.8 millimeters long.
Your nose and ears continue to develop throughout your life. On average, it takes seven minutes for people to fall asleep on average and you blink about 10 times per minute on average. Everyone has unique fingerprints, similar to how their tongue prints can differ significantly between individuals.
Human bodies contain many different minerals, from enough sulfur to kill all fleas on a dog to enough carbon to create 900 pencils, potassium to launch a toy cannon and more than enough fat for seven bars of soap production. Furthermore, our bodies produce enzymes which break down dead cells to form proteins needed for new ones as well as hormones that regulate metabolism and blood pressure regulation.
3. Humans are the only animals that have eyes.
While there are countless animals with eyes, none alone possess vision. Nearly all vertebrate animals (vertebrates) possess eyes as an optical structure which creates imagery from light waves and nerve impulses. Most vertebrates contain two types of photoreceptors in their retina: rod receptors for night vision and cone receptors which respond to different wavelengths, producing different colors.
One creature stands out as having superior eyes: a shrimp! A crustacean called the mantis shrimp features sixteen kinds of photoreceptors that give it superior vision capabilities such as distinguishing shapes, colors and sizes. Furthermore, its eyelid helps shield its sensitive inner parts.
Humans share many traits with these creatures that might surprise us, including eyeballs. Like us, these creatures also possess a visible white part called the sclera that encompasses their darker-colored iris and pupil in the center – unlike most animal eyes which tend to be black and difficult to detect.
Scientists remain uncertain why humans and other mammals possess white sclerae, yet scientists suggest that its white hue evolved as an indicator of gaze direction in social interactions or as an indicator of physical health – some diseases like Hepatitis can discolor it in some individuals.
Humans tend to blink frequently – an average of approximately 20 times per minute! That equates to roughly 10 million blinks annually!
Skin color is determined by how much melanin someone produces; those with lower melanin tend to have lighter complexions while those with greater amounts produce darker tones of skin and hair color respectively. This also applies to eye and hair coloring.
Human bodies are truly remarkable! From miles of blood vessels to bone regeneration, there’s so much we can learn about ourselves from exploring every inch. So next time you take a stroll outdoors, take time to admire all that your body is capable of!
4. Humans are the only animals that have a brain.
From miles of blood vessels to constantly regenerating bones, the human body is truly extraordinary. From eating, sleeping and breathing to memory recall and even eye movement control, your body works tirelessly for you every moment of every day to stay alive. But did you know that the brain is the most complex organ in your entire body? Not only does it keep vital functions running smoothly like keeping your heartbeat and breathing normal but it also plays an integral part in learning new concepts by connecting them to existing concepts stored in memory; in fact it even controls eye movement as you read, making sense of printed ink on paper in terms of words and sentences!
Though brains of different animals may appear very dissimilar – for instance, those belonging to monkeys, bats, and whales all exhibit differing features — the overall structure of the brain remains the same over evolution; all mammals have come up with similar brain structures in order to perform their respective tasks successfully.
The human brain contains approximately 86 billion nerve cells and is responsible for our thoughts, emotions and actions. But it also holds many mysteries we will likely never fully understand – for instance why some people have lisps while others don’t; but we do know the different parts of the brain such as cerebral cortex, cerebellum and brain stem exist.
Other interesting facts about the human brain include that it uses over one quarter of all of our oxygen consumption and that it begins developing alongside other vital organs, like our lungs and stomach. Furthermore, its development starts as early as four-week old embryo as simple bulges along a neural tube.
Other interesting human body facts include that the longest pregnancy ever was 375 days long and that your brain can only go up to six minutes without oxygen without sleep, while too long without eating could put your body into starvation mode known as “toothache mode”, in which your teeth begin erupting from your gums and sprouting outward.