10 amazing fun facts about the human body

Ready up for a fun ride in the vanity fair of human physiology today. Here we go!

• All the scientific jargon notwithstanding, the Red Blood Cells (RBCs) are actually yellow to yellowish brown in colour.​

• Human intelligence depends on the number of neurons (nerve cells) in the brain. Female brain is actually smaller in size than the male brain, so that it would fit lesser number of neurons than a male’s (say whaaa….? Read on). However, nature compensates for this by giving more neuron density to the female brain, so that, ultimately both contain the same number of neurons leading to equal intelligence.

• Scientists believe that kissing is actually an evolutionary variant of the feeding habit in mammals where parents feed the young ones with pre-chewed morsels until they grow strong teeth. Now digest that, …. literally! 🙂

• Unlike what most people think, the two kidneys are not symmetrically placed in the body. The left kidney is actually positioned a centimeter higher than the right one.

• The ‘butterflies’ you have in the stomach on seeing your crush, is actually the adrenaline thumping its way into your systems as part of the body’s fight-or-flight response.​

• 80% of all the sensory input signals data coming to the brain per second is only from the eyes.

• An auricular branch of the vagus nerve (that controls pretty much every important organ including heart) passes through the external ear very near to the surface. Even a short unintentional excessive stimulation to it during ear cleaning can cause reflex coughing, vomiting, or even cardiac inhibition! So, ear cleaning is no child’s play. Always practise care while doing it. 

• Cerebellum (the part of brain placed under the occiput) actually means ‘the smaller brain’ in Latin. So fans can humbly brag that Nana Patekar is really a science-y guy after all 😉

• Though it may seem different, the funny bone is scientifically named ‘Humerus’ as it means ‘upper arm’ in Latin. Nothing doing with humour there. :’)

• Your ear is actually the organ that monitors the static balance of the body, apart from the hearing function. The inner ear contains a thing called the vestibulo-cocchlear apparatus, which is a 3D meshwork of fluid filled ducts, the changes in flow/pressure of which is caught up by sensory receptors and conveyed to the brain, where they are collated to create sense of balance.