The human body is something very complex and, every year, scientists find something new and very striking, which makes us question to what extent we know about our organic packaging.

To help you know a little more about our organism here we will see 30 curiosities about the human body , besides explaining some details about them.

30 curiosities about the human body

Next we will see some interesting curiosities about the human body.

1. Bone and larger

In the human body there are bones of all lengths, but the longest is undoubtedly the femur. This bone is found in both legs, and has an average length of 26.74% the height of the person , although the proportion varies according to sex and ethnicity.

It is a particularly useful bone in anthropology, as it is the one that allows us to estimate a person’s height, even if only this bone is preserved.

2. Smaller bone

You can’t talk about the biggest bone without mentioning the smallest. In this case we are talking about the tiny stirrup, an ossicle that is located in the ear and has a length of between 2.5 and 3 centimeters.

3. They change our eyes as we grow

At the time of birth, most children have light eyes, many of which are blue.

However, those whose parents have darker eyes, when exposed to the sun’s rays, generate more melanin than the children of parents with lighter eyes , their eyes becoming the same colour as their parents’.

4. Size of the penis

On average, the human erect penis has a proportion of three times the size of the thumb. On average, the flaccid penis is about 9 cm long, while the erect penis is 13 cm long. However, if we want to be more specific, we must talk about the differences found between races.

On average, in Caucasians the penis is about 13 cm long, while black Africans have the longest, about 17 cm, and Asians the shortest, about 10 cm.

5. Our aroma

Just as each of us has a characteristic face, we also generate a different smell. Our aroma is a sign that can identify us , since the human nose is capable of associating up to 50,000 different aromas, and you can perfectly recognize someone just by inhaling their smell.

The reason we smell different is due to several factors. These include genetics, as well as our diet and, of course, our body hygiene.

6. How much flatulence do we expel?

When we talk about human beings expelling gas, we do not only refer to the process of breathing. Flatulences, which is the finest form of referring to these smelly gases, are emitted an average of 14 times per day/person . In more specific terms, our windings account for between 0.5 and 2 litres of gas per day.

7. The longest organ

The longest organ is the small intestine, which can be up to 3 meters long while the person is alive. When it dies, it expands, reaching 7 to 8 meters in length.

8. We are a living world

Human beings and, in general, the vast majority of animals, are a real living world for billions of microorganisms . At a microscopic level, the number of cells and bacteria that inhabit and make up our organism is extremely high. It is estimated that there are between 10 and 50 billion cells in the body and that approximately three hundred million die every 60 seconds.

About 32 million bacteria live on every inch of skin, the vast majority of which, about 95%, are harmless. As for the mouth, up to 40,000 bacteria can be found. In fact, when we don’t kiss, we transmit about 280 different types of bacteria.

There are so many bacteria living in us that if they were all collected and put into a sack, this sack would weigh two kilos more .

9. Life after beheading

Although this data could not be rigorously demonstrated, given how unethical it would be to check it, it has been said that in case a person is decapitated, the head will give some signs of life until after 20 seconds .

It is not well known whether the head is still conscious in those seconds, nor is it possible to wonder what it thinks or feels since it has no vocal cords to make any sound, and neck muscles and breathing are required for speech.

10. When we die we weigh less

When a person dies, they almost immediately lose about 21 grams. This can be material for the most superstitious, who believe in the human soul, however there is a scientific explanation . When we die we quickly deflate, releasing the gases from the stomach and lungs.

After a few hours, other chemical processes occur that also alter the weight of the body, swelling, making it smell bad and even making strange noises.

11. How many muscles do we move when we gesture?

In the face there are muscles, of that nobody has doubts, the question is how many of them are involved in each of the gestures that we do in our day to day. When we smile, we use 17, while when we frown, there are many more, up to 43. When we get angry we use about 37, being also the same when we cry .

So you know. Instead of buying products from the telemarketer to do facial gymnastics, the healthiest and most economical thing is to get excited.

12. Where are there more bones?

Of the total 206 bones that an adult human being has, about a quarter of them are found in the feet.

Each foot has 26 ossicles , being these: seven tarsal bones (talus, calcaneus, scaphoid, cuboid and the three wedges), five metatarsal bones and fourteen phalanges, three for each toe, except the first one which has two.

13. Languages and fingerprints are unique

Fingerprints have become one of the most effective identifiers of a person.

Each person has his or her own, and it is not a trait that can be inherited or is dependent on genetics , so even identical twins do not share fingerprints.

The same thing happens with the human tongue. Each person has a different one, with its more or less marked circumvolutions, its own shape and the distribution of the taste buds.

14. The power of a human bite

Although we are not crocodiles, one of the animals whose jaws are capable of destroying the bones, cartilage and tissue of their poor prey, the force of our bite is not at all a booger.

The absolute strength of the muscles involved in this process, if it could be channelled in only one direction, would be 195 kilos .

15. Eyebrow hairs

Although there are people with very hairy eyebrows and others with very thin eyebrows, it can be indicated that, on average, people usually have about 250 hairs on each of them .

The useful life of these tegumentary structures is about 4 months, and their growth factor is relatively fast.

16. More bones at birth

There are differences between the number of bones when we are born and when we have reached adulthood. By the time we come out of the womb and show our first signs of life as living beings, we have about 300 bones.

However, as we grow, some of these end up welding to each other, as is the case with the bones of the skull , causing the number, when they reach adulthood, to be reduced to about 206.

But oddly enough, there are bones that newborns don’t have while adults do. One example is the kneecap, which forms between 6 and 12 months of age.

17. Blinking: a small gesture of the eye, a great function for the body

It has been calculated that, on average, we blink between 15 and 20 times per minute . This fleeting action is very important, since it prevents the eye from accumulating dust, as well as moisturizing it.

If we did not make this small gesture every few years, our eyes would become red, swollen, more prone to dryness and infection, and we would risk losing them.

18. Five senses: lie!

Although traditionally in school we have been taught that there are five senses of the human body (hearing, taste, smell, sight and touch), in reality , human beings have more senses .

Since research is still not clear about how many senses human beings have, we can mention a few very interesting ones.

Among them we have the sense of balance, kinesthesia (perception of movement), proprioception (perception of one’s body), mechanoreception (motor capacity of response), nociception (capacity to feel pain)…

19. Small, but tough

In our hands we have the little finger, a very small finger, but a bully, since it is the strongest of the fingers that make up the hand.

Their presence is essential for us to be able to grasp objects with the necessary force to handle them. In fact, it has been seen that people who have lost this finger due to an accident have lost about half of the strength in the limb .

20. Strong, but not strong

Fingers are strong, but they’re not hunkered down. By this we mean that although they have a lot of strength to handle objects, especially the little finger as we said before, these body parts do not possess any muscle.

No matter how much strength and dexterity you have in doing an everyday action, such as opening and closing a coat, holding a dumbbell or holding something, it is not by the action of your finger muscles, as there are none.

The real ones involved in these actions are the combined movements of bones and tendons , as well as the muscles of the palms.

21. Stomach and intestines: a second brain?

According to those written by James Greenblatt in 2011, there are more neurons in the digestive tract than anywhere else besides the brain. In fact, the stomach has been shown to be independent of the brain.

The stomach and intestines have their own reflexes , acting freely with the brain and consequently acting on both digestion and emotional aspects.

That’s why we might get this butterfly feeling in our stomachs when we fall in love.

22. Bones are stronger than steel

This statement may come as a surprise to many, especially those who have once broken a bone, but the truth is that our skeletal system is incredibly hard.

Bones can withstand pressure better than iron , and they even have a greater resistance than a steel bar with the same width, being up to 5 times better.

However, despite this surprising fact, it does not mean that human bones cannot be broken, and therefore one should not take unnecessary risks and test what has been said in that curiosity.

23. We shine

Many of us shine like Hollywood stars, but this curiosity does not refer to this saying, but must be interpreted in its most literal sense: human beings emit light.

Our organism is capable of emitting light, in the form of glows, however, the intensity of these glows is about 1,000 less than what our eyes are capable of capturing .

24. Body position affects our mood and memory

The ability to learn can be affected by the position in which we find ourselves. It has been seen that if one leans down, one tends to think more negatively and is even more prone to neglect and forgetfulness.

On the other hand, if one sits upwards, looking in that direction, the mood is likely to be elevated , remembering more easily.

25. Stomach: he melts metals

It is well known that stomach acid is capable of dissolving food and removing all kinds of particles, but its true power may still be underestimated.

This liquid is capable of melting much harder things, such as metals. In fact, an investigation at Meridia Huron Hospital consisted of leaving razor blades in acids similar to the ones we have in our stomach.

The result: the blades, after only one day, had been reduced by more than half . The stomach is an organ capable of melting metals.

26. The kidneys: the body’s purifier

The kidneys are meant to clean and filter the dirt from the body. They are the purifier of the body, as they are a perfect biological machine for purification and cleansing.

In just five minutes they are able to have filtered all the blood in the body , and it is not exactly something that has little merit, since it is five liters of blood.

27. How would we die first? From hunger or from sleep?

A normal person would die sooner from lack of sleep than from hunger.

The human body needs to sleep, since it is the time of day when it can rest, restructure its thoughts and put its organic functions in good rhythm. If we do not sleep at all, after 10 days the body will collapse and we will die.

Instead, it’s longer we can go without eating, about two weeks. Although it is not good to not eat anything either, a normal person has enough reserves to last without eating anything for that time.

28. Retina

The retina is a layer of tissue that lies inside the eye. This structure covers about 650 square millimeters in area, and contains 137 million light-sensitive cells .

These cells are of two types: on the one hand, we have the rods, which allow seeing in black and white and are about 130 million, while on the other hand we have the cones, which allow color vision and are about 7 million.

29. Minerals

All kinds of minerals are found in the body, either making up structures such as bones or dissolved in fluids such as blood.

The main minerals in the human body are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, magnesium, manganese, iron, iodine, fluorine, zinc, cobalt and selenium . There are others, but of those considered pure minerals there are only four: apatite, aragonite, calcite, and cristobalite.

30. Percentage and loss of water

The human body is composed of 60-80% water, with the percentages of the liquid element being higher when you are a baby and lower as you grow.

The body is very sensitive to water loss. When we lose about 1% of our body weight in water, we start to feel thirsty .

If this percentage goes up to 5% we start to get dizzy and even faint. If we go to 10% we will have a serious problem, since we will be suffering from severe dehydration and a high risk of dying.

BONUS How many things could be done with our body?

Perhaps this is the most sadistic of all the curiosities that appear here, but the truth is that with our organism we could do a lot of things , if we found the means to do so. Here we will see other curiosities about the human body of this type.

  • The amount of sulfur in our body is enough to make a powerful anti-flea for a medium sized dog. As for the carbon we have, it would be useful for us to make about 900 pencils.
  • The iron we possess in our body is sufficient to make a small clockwork.
  • A person with an average body mass index, who is neither overweight nor underweight, has enough fat to make 7 bars of soap.
  • The amount of water our body has would be enough to fill fifty one-litre bottles.

Bibliographic references:

  • Nakano, T., Kato, M., Morito, Y., Itoi, S., Kitazawa, S. (2013). Blink-related momentary activation of the default mode network while viewing videos. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 110(2):702-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1214804110.
  • Almodóvar, M. Á. (2014). The second brain: Discover the importance of the digestive system for your health (Body and Health). Paidós
  • Li, P. K., Spittler, C., Taylor, C. W., Sponseller, D., Chung, R. S. (1997). In vitro effects of simulated gastric juice on swallowed metal objects: implications for practical management. Gastrointestinal Endosc. 46(2):152-5.