Category: Wednesday Wonder

The Tongue.

D­on’t stick out your tongue if you want to hide your identity. Similar to fingerprints, everyone also has a unique tongue print!

The next time someone sticks out their tongue at you, take a closer look. See all those tiny bumps and ridges? “It’s the different distribution of size and shape, just as fingerprints,” said Bowyer, that makes your tongue unique to you and no one else. The bumps contain more than 10,000 taste buds, each one filled with microscopic hairs called microvilli. Microvilli function like tiny food critics, sensing if your meal is sweet or sour, salty or bitter, and sending reviews up to the brain.¹

20 interesting human tongue facts²

1. Did you know that the tongue is the only muscle in human body that works without any support from the skeleton? Yes! It is known as a  muscular hydrostat.
2. Our tongue is the home of our taste buds. When looked under a magnifying glass, hundreds and thousands of small bumps will become visible on the tongue. These bumps are known as papillae and are the actual home of our taste buds.
3. The tongue is not the only place where taste buds live. Taste buds can also be found on the inside of our cheeks, on our lips, on the roof of our mouth and even under the tongue.
4. There are approximately 10,000 taste buds in our mouth of which 8,000 live on our tongue and the remaining 2,000 are found in the places we mentioned in the previous point.
5. There are specific segments on the tongue for sensing different tastes. The notion that different parts of the tongue are responsible for sensing different types of tastes (in other words, there are taste belts) is actually a myth. Our tongue can taste sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. Umami is actually a very new variant of taste discovered by a Japanese scientist who found that the chemical that is responsible for this taste is monosodium glutamate.
6. Our tongue is the only muscle in our body that is capable of sensing taste and sending taste signals to the brain. Each individual taste bud has around 15 receptacles that are responsible for carrying taste signals to our brain.
7. The tongue is THE STRONGEST muscle in the entire body. However, it is at the same time, one of THE MOST sensitive muscles as well.
8. In terms of flexibility, the tongue beats every other muscle in our body! Because of this flexibility, the tongue is capable of easily manipulating food inside the mouth and is also capable of acting as a natural cleanser for our teeth after a meal.
9. Our tongue has a unique property. It is incapable of detecting taste if it is dry. This means that if you place a piece of lemon on a dry tongue, you will not be able to tell that it is sour. The tongue gets its ability to sense taste only in the presence of saliva that keeps it moist.
10. The colour of the tongue can tell a lot about a person’s health. Here are some colour indications about health: Pink Tongue = Good Health; White Tongue = Fungal Infection and Yellow Tongue = Stomach Problem or Fever.
11. Tongueprints (actually tongue imprints) of humans are unique (very much the same as the fingerprints). Tongues of different humans are of different shapes and will have different number of taste buds, thus making the tongue imprints unique.
12. The tongue has a really, really rough texture. Did you ever notice that while kissing someone?
13. Women have shorter tongues compared to males.
14. We mentioned in point 9 that a dry tongue is incapable of detecting taste. That’s because taste buds are capable of sensing taste only when molecules of the food (or whatever you put in your mouth) dissolve in water (our saliva consists of water). This essentially means that you cannot sense the taste of anything whose molecules do not dissolve in water even if you have a moist tongue. Ever tried tasting glass?
15. Here is an interesting tongue fact – if you don’t keep your tongue clean, you will get bad breath. Why is it so? That’s because our mouth is the home of more than 600 different types of bacteria and a single saliva drop contains 1 million of those bacteria. Our entire tongue remains moist due to saliva. So, can you ever imagine the number of bacteria present on our tongue?
16. Every taste bud on our tongue has somewhere between 50 and 100 taste sensing cells. No individual cell is capable of tasting more than one taste.
17. About 2/3rd of the tongue is visible and the remaining 1/3rd is not visible. The part that is not visible is close to the throat.
18. In Tibet, you can merrily stick your tongue out at others. It will not be considered rude or childish. In Tibet, it is actually a greeting.
19. The tongue is more important than we think. It not only helps to taste food but also helps to talk, to spit, to swallow and even to kiss.
20. The longest human tongue to ever be recorded was 10.1cm from back to tip. The longest female tongue to ever be recorded was 9.75cm.

Sources:

1. You’re more unique than you know, cnn.com
2. 20 interesting human tongue facts, factslegend.org

Foot facts

Feet get us around – we use them for running, walking and jumping. And yet, most people know very little about what actually goes on inside the foot. Feet generally get taken for granted – that is, until something goes wrong with them. Nothing incapacitates you as much as a broken or badly infected foot, and smelly feet can affect others as well.

Some foot facts

• The average adult takes 4,000 to 6,000 steps a day.
• Sixty million Americans or 25% of the U.S. population have flat feet.
• In the Middle East heels were added to shoes to lift the foot from the burning sand.
• Feet are at their largest at the end of the day.
• In a foot, there are 250,000 sweat glands.
• The only shoe museum in North America is located in Toronto. This museum showcases shoes spanning over 4,500 years.
• Sneakers were first made in America in 1916. They were originally called keds.
• In Europe it wasn’t until the 18th century that women’s shoes were different from men’s.
• In Europe, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
• The average person walks about 100,000 miles in a lifetime.
• Feet are spreading to support extra weight as our populations pack on the kilos. According to a 2014 study by the College of Podiatry in the UK, the average foot has increased two sizes since the 1970s.
• The oldest preserved shoe is 5,500 years old and was found in an Armenian cave.
• Approximately 20% of the population in the US has high arches
• The human foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons.
• The first boots were made for Queen Victoria in 1840.
• Plantar fasciitis affects about 10% of the US population.
• There are 52 bones in a pair of feet.
• The average foot gets two sizes longer when a person stands up.
• Madeline Albrecht holds the world record for most feet sniffed at 5,600.
• 75% of Americans will experience foot problems at one time or another in their lives.
• The average woman walks 3 miles more per day than the average male.
• The record for the world’s largest feet belongs to Matthew McGrory who wears US size 28.5 shoes. The average male shoe size is 10.
• 9 out of 10 women wear shoes that are too small for their feet.
• During the first year of a child’s life, their feet grow rapidly, reaching almost half their adult size. By 12, a child’s foot is about 90% of its adult length.
• Walking is the best exercise for your feet. It contributes to your general health by improving circulation and weight control.
• Typically in a person’s 30-40’s, the natural fat pads on the bottoms of the feet made from collagen & elastin gradually thin out, causing foot pain by the end of the day unless properly cushioned footwear is worn.
• It takes at least 5-6 months to grow an entirely new toenail.
• Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis, affecting an estimated 20.7 million adults in the United States, mostly after the age of 45.
• Cigarette smoking is the biggest cause of Peripheral Vascular Disease (disease of the arteries of the feet and legs) which often leads to pain on walking, ulceration, infection and in the most severe cases – gangrene and possible amputation.
• The pressure on the feet when running can be as much as four times the runner’s body weight.
• Fingernails and toenails grow faster during hot weather, pregnancy, and teenage years.
• 25% of all the bones in the human body are down in your feet. When these bones are out of alignment, so is the rest of your body.
• Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in sports. Because the inner ankle is more stable than the outer ankle, the foot is likely to turn inward from a fall (ankle inversion) which results in an ankle sprain.
• About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.
• The average child will take its first steps around 13-17 months – but between 10 and 18 months falls within the “normal” range.
• During an average day of walking, the forces on your feet can total hundreds of tons, equivalent to an average of a fully loaded cement truck.
• The ancient Romans were the first to construct distinct left and right shoes. Before that, shoes could be worn on either foot.
• Women experience foot problems 4 times more often than men.
• 65 out of 1,000 people get corns or calluses on their feet.
• Sweat glands in the feet product approximately half a pint of perspiration daily.
• Shoe size in Britain is measured in Barleycorns a unit of measurement that stretches back to Anglo-Saxon times.
• More than half the women in America have bunions, a common foot deformity in which the joint that connects the big toe to the foot gets larger and juts out.
• Akshat Saxena holds the world record for having the most toes after being born with 34 fingers and toes, with 10 digits on each foot!
• About 20-30% of the world’s population have Morton’s Toe, a foot condition in which the second toe is longer than the big toe.
• In America, the average shoe size has gone up two sizes in just four decades.
• Soles of feet contain more sweat glands and sensory nerve endings per square centimeter than any other part of the body.
• Over 2 million Americans seek treatment for plantar fasciitis (heel pain) each year.
• When walking, each time your heel lifts off the ground it forces the toes to carry one half of your body weight.
• It’s rare that two feet are exactly the same; one of them is usually larger than the other.
• The first foot coverings were probably animal skins, which Stone Age peoples in northern Europe and Asia tied around their ankles in cold weather.
• Foot disorders in the elderly are extremely common and are the cause of much pain and disability, and consequent loss of mobility and independence.
• A human foot & ankle is a strong, mechanical structure that contain 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons & ligaments.
• Standing in one spot is far more tiring than walking because the demands are being made on the same few muscles for a longer length of time.
• Butterflies taste with their feet, gannets incubate eggs under their webbed feet and elephants use their feet to hear – they pick up vibrations of the earth through their soles.
• 3 out of 4 Americans experience serious foot problems in their lifetime.
• Only a small percentage of the population is born with foot problems.
• It’s neglect and a lack of awareness of proper care – including ill fitting shoes – that bring on problems.
• Women have about four times as many foot problems as men. High heels are partly to blame.
• Walking is the best exercise for your feet. It also contributes to your general health by improving circulation, contributing to weight control, and promoting all-around well being.
• Your feet mirror your general health. Conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, nerve and circulatory disorders can show their initial symptoms in the feet – so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.
• Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in America. It limits everyday dressing, climbing stairs, getting in and out of bed or walking – for about 7 million Americans.
• About 60-70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of diabetic nerve damage, which in severe forms can lead to lower limb amputations. Approximately 56,000 people a year lose their foot or leg to diabetes.
• Sweat glands in the feet excrete as much as a half-pint of moisture a day.
• Walking barefoot can cause plantar warts. The virus enters through a cut.
• The two feet may be different sizes. Buy shoes for the larger one.
• About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.
• The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, which adds up to about 115,000 miles over a lifetime. That’s enough to go around the circumference of the earth four times.
• There are currently more websites on the Internet having to do with foot fetishes than with foot health.
• The foot accounts for 25% of the bones in the human body.
• There are roughly 500,000 sweat glands on a pair of feet.
• The afternoon is the optimum time to shop for shoes because the feet tend to be more swollen then.
• Shoe sizes were devised in England by King Edward II who declared in 1324 that the diameter of one barley corn – a third of an inch – would represent one full shoe size. That’s still true today.
• The feet can contract an array of nasty diseases from communal showers: Planter Wart, Athletes foot, Ring worm!

— Foot Facts, foot.com

Previous: Wednesday Wonder #7: Skin

Next: Wednesday Wonder #9: Coughs and Sneezes

Skin

The skin supports its own ecosystems of microorganisms, including yeasts and bacteria, which cannot be removed by any amount of cleaning. Estimates place the number of individual bacteria on the surface of one square inch (6.5 square cm) of human skin at 50 million, though this figure varies greatly over the average 20 square feet (1.9 m²) of human skin.

Oily surfaces, such as the face, may contain over 500 million bacteria per square inch (6.5 cm²). Despite these vast quantities, all of the bacteria found on the skin’s surface would fit into a volume the size of a pea.^[1]

In general, the microorganisms keep one another in check and are part of a healthy skin. When the balance is disturbed, there may be an overgrowth and infection, such as when antibiotics kill microbes, resulting in an overgrowth of yeast.

– Human Skin, Wikipedia

21 Little Known Facts About The Human Body

1. A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.
2. A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.
3. Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
4. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
5. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.
6. Every person has a unique tongue print.
7. According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week.
8. An average human drinks about 16,000 gallons of water in a lifetime.
9. A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.
10. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
11. It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown.
12. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.
13. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.
14. By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
15. By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)
16. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
17. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
18. Every person has a unique tongue print.
19. Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
20. Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
21. Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour – about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

– Human trivia, Teach-nology

References:

1. Theodor Rosebury. Life on Man: Secker & Warburg, 1969 ISBN 0-670-42793-4

Previous: Wednesday Wonder #6: the Small Intestine

Next: Wednesday Wonder #8: Smelly Feet

How Long???

The easy experimental answer to this question is 264 hours (about 11 days)^[1][3].

In 1965, Randy Gardner^[2], a 17-year-old high school student, set this apparent world-record for a science fair. Several other normal research subjects have remained awake for eight to 10 days in carefully monitored experiments. None of these individuals experienced serious medical, neurological, physiological or psychiatric problems.

On the other hand, all of them showed progressive and significant deficits in concentration, motivation, perception and other higher mental processes as the duration of sleep deprivation increased. Nevertheless, all experimental subjects recovered to relative normality within one or two nights of recovery sleep. Other anecdotal reports describe soldiers staying awake for four days in battle, or unmedicated patients with mania going without sleep for three to four days. (Read more of this article^[1] at Scientific American on-line).

The Australian National Sleep Research Project states the record for sleep deprivation is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes^[2].

Sources

1. “How long can humans stay awake?” J. Christian Gillin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, in Scientific American
2. Randy Gardner (record holder) Wikipedia
3. “Man Dies After Going 11 Days Without Sleep: What Are The Health Risks Of Sleep Deprivation?”, Huffington Post

36 Interesting Facts about the Human Heart

1. The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime._[5]
2. Though weighing only 11 ounces on average, a healthy heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day._[3]
3. A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime._[1]
4. The volume of blood pumped by the heart can vary over a wide range, from five to 30 litres per minute._[6]
5. Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back._[1]
6. Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen._[3]
7. French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope when he felt it was inappropriate to place his ear on his large-bosomed female patients’ chests._[5]
8. The foetal heart rate is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute. By the time a foetus is 12 weeks old, its heart pumps an amazing 60 pints of blood a day._[7]
9. The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas receive no blood supply._[3]
10. During an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood—enough to fill 200 train tank cars._[1]
11. Five percent of blood supplies the heart, 15-20% goes to the brain and central nervous system, and 22% goes to the kidneys._[1]
12. The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing._[1]
13. The heart does the most physical work of any muscle during a lifetime. The power output of the heart ranges from 1-5 watts. While the quadriceps can produce 100 watts for a few minutes, an output of one watt for 80 years is equal to 2.5 gigajoules._[1]
14. The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death._[7]
15. “Atrium” is Latin for “entrance hall,” and “ventricle” is Latin for “little belly.”_[1]
16. A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in circulation. An adult human has about four to five quarts which the heart pumps to all the tissues and to and from the lungs in about one minute while beating 75 times._[7]
17. The heart pumps oxygenated blood through the aorta (the largest artery) at about 1 mile (1.6 km) per hour. By the time blood reaches the capillaries, it is moving at around 43 inches (109 cm) per hour._[7]
18. Early Egyptians believed that the heart and other major organs had wills of their own and would move around inside the body._[4]
19. An anonymous contributor to the Hippocratic Collection (or Canon) believed vessel valves kept impurities out of the heart, since the intelligence of man was believed to lie in the left cavity._[5]
20. Plato theorised that reasoning originated with the brain, but that passions originated in the “fiery” heart._[5]
21. The term “heartfelt” originated from Aristotle’s philosophy that the heart collected sensory input from the peripheral organs through the blood vessels. It was from those perceptions that thought and emotions arose._[5]
22. Prolonged lack of sleep can cause irregular jumping heartbeats called premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)._[2]
23. Cocaine affects the heart’s electrical activity and causes spasm of the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke, even in healthy people._[1]
24. Galen of Pergamum, a prominent surgeon to Roman gladiators, demonstrated that blood, not air, filled arteries, as Hippocrates had concluded. However, he also believed that the heart acted as a low-temperature oven to keep the blood warm and that blood trickled from one side of the heart to the other through tiny holes in the heart._[5]
25. Galen agreed with Aristotle that the heart was the body’s source of heat, a type of “lamp” fuelled by blood from the liver and fanned into spirituous flame by air from the lungs. The brain merely served to cool the blood._[5]
26. In 1929, German surgeon Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) examined the inside of his own heart by threading a catheter into his arm vein and pushing it 20 inches and into his heart, inventing cardiac catheterisation, a now common procedure._[5]
27. On December 3, 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001) of South Africa transplanted a human heart into the body of Louis Washansky. Although the recipient lived only 18 days, it is considered the first successful heart transplant._[6]
28. A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 beats per minute._[2]
29. Blood is actually a tissue. When the body is at rest, it takes only six seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, only eight seconds for it to go the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart._[3]
30. Physician Erasistratus of Chios (304-250 B.C.) was the first to discover that the heart functioned as a natural pump._[5]
31. In his text De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, the father of modern anatomy, Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), argued that the blood seeped from one ventricle to another through mysterious pores._[5]
32. Galen argued that the heart constantly produced blood. However, William Harvey’s (1578-1657) discovery of the circulation system in 1616 revealed that there was a finite amount of blood in the body and that it circulated in one direction._[5]
33. Some heavy snorers may have a condition called obtrusive sleep apnoea (OSA), which can negatively affect the heart._[2]
34. The right atrium holds about 3.5 tablespoons of blood. The right ventricle holds slightly more than a quarter cup of blood. The left atrium holds the same amount of blood as the right, but its walls are three times thicker._[7]
35. Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood._[1]
36. In 1903, physiologist Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) invented the electrocardiograph, which measures electric current in the heart._[6]

List by Tayja Kuligowski, published November 28, 2016

References

1 Avraham, Regina. The Circulatory System. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000.

2 Chilnick, Lawrence. Heart Disease: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. Philadelphia, PA: Perseus Books Group, 2008.

3 Daniels, Patricia, et. al. Body: The Complete Human. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007.

4 Davis, Goode P., et. al. The Heart: The Living Pump. Washington D.C.: U.S. News Books,1981.

5 Parramon’s Editorial Team. Essential Atlas of Physiology. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, 2005.

6 The Heart and Circulatory System. Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 2000.

7 Tsiaras, Alexander. The InVision Guide to a Healthy Heart. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.