10 Mildly Jaw-dropping Tidbits About Humans

Have you noticed how your nose and ears never stop growing?

I have always been fascinated by our intricate design. There are so many subtle details in the human mind and body that I wonder where evolution will take us.

The human brain is the most complex structure known to science. It is believed that people contain 86 billion neurons on average, with around 100 trillion connections between them.

Yet it takes us between six and eight hours to digest a meal, which seems like a long time.

So there is certainly room for improvement.

There are many fascinating aspects of ourselves that we are unaware of. Hence, here are 10 amazing human-related facts.

Top 10 Mind-Boggling Facts About Humans

1. The human body has more cells than there are galaxies in the universe or stars in our galaxy

There’s no absolute estimation of the number of cells in the human body. Research led by Dr. Eva Bianconi and published in the Annals of Human Biology estimated that each of our bodies contains roughly 37.2 trillion cells.

Human cells come in various sizes and are distributed throughout the body at multiple densities. Therefore, the researchers had to consider the different volumes and surface areas of human sections, including the skin, blood, internal organs, and everything else, and how closely the cells were packed in each.

2. The human brain alone has 100 billion neurons and the same consistency as tofu

Despite its sluggish looks, the human brain is a highly complex organ capable of processing everything about our surrounding environment in a flinch of an eye, even if we only use a small portion of its computing power.

The brain weighs about 1.35 kilograms in an average adult human and comprises around 100 billion neurons.

However, even if brain size matters when it comes to distinguishing humans from other animals like primates. Intelligence is not all about size. A Dolphin’s brain is heavier than ours, weighing 1600 grams. Still, dolphins have a lower brain-to-body-weight ratio.

3. Humans are highly complex meta-cognitive sentient beings

Science has debunked the great misconception that humans are the only species that can voluntarily change their behavior or consciously think about their thoughts.

However, human meta-cognition is unrivaled.

The human mind is a cognitive system that has the capacity for monitoring and self-regulation, enabling the interaction of the human being with the environment and providing the ability to think about himself. The understanding of this process is called metacognition.

Metacognition is the knowledge of knowledge itself and includes the evaluation, regulation, and organization of one’s cognitive processes.

That’s why we can generate thoughts about thoughts, knowledge about knowledge, and reflections about actions.

4. Humans are the only species that can commit genocide

Humans are the only species that can create beautiful works of art and literature, and we are also the only ones with the power to destroy all we’ve made without flinching.

No other species has taken the lives of their kind out of pure barbarism as humans have done for millennia.

Non-human animals seldomly kill for sport and are incapable of performing mass killings.

The term “genocide” did not even exist before 1944; it was created as a specific concept to designate crimes that have as their objective the elimination of the physical existence of national, ethnic, racial, and religious groups.

5. Humans have about 23,000 genes

However, if you think humans have the largest genome in the animal kingdom, you must look behind door number three.

The near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex (water flea) holds the record with more than 31,000 genes.

The Australian lungfish is the animal with the largest genome ever sequenced. With 43 billion base pairs, its genome is 14 times larger than that of a human with 3 billion base pairs.

Size doesn’t matter when it comes to the genome.

6. The tallest human ever recorded stood more than 8 ft tall

Robert Wadlow was in Alton, Illinois, on February 22, 1918, to two normal-sized parents, weighing only 8.7 pounds (3.85 kg). A perfectly normal and healthy baby.

But he quickly began to soar, reaching an incredible 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm) by age five, and towered over his siblings.

At the age of eight, he was already as tall as his father measuring 11 feet (180.3 cm).

However, Robert’s extraordinary height caused several medical problems, which got worse as he grew taller and taller.

Robert died on 15 July 1940 in Manistee, Michigan. He remains the tallest human to have ever walked on earth.

7. There are more people in the world under the age of twenty than any other age group.

There are about 2.6 billion people on our planet under 20 years of age. This accounts for about 33.2% of the global population.

In comparison, there are roughly 2% above 80.

In the 1950s, that demographic accounted for only 0.05% of the population, indicating that we have a more significant percentage of senior individuals than we had 70 years ago.

8. Are human babies born without kneecaps?

This one needs a bit of scientific background. When babies are developing in the womb, their kneecaps are made of cartilage. This is the same material that makes up our nose, ears, and windpipe.

Cartilage is semi-solid and flexible so that it can bend easily with the baby’s growing body. Once they are born, however, cartilage needs to turn into bone to strengthen and stabilize their joints as they grow up.

It takes about two years for cartilage to turn into bone, but for some babies, this process never happens appropriately because of a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta (OI).

This is why babies can’t walk or crawl when they’re born until they develop knee cartilage as they get older.

This is also why infants and toddlers fall all the time! If they had wholly formed kneecaps, they wouldn’t fall so quickly when they started walking and crawling.

Thus, it’s not like kneecaps are nonexistent on newborn babies; they simply aren’t entirely formed.

9. Evolution-wise, humans are more likely to lose a finger than to grow an extra digit

Our mammal ancestors had six, seven, or even eight digits, but evolution has been trimming the number of fingers on tetrapods and will keep doing so in the future.

Michael Coates, associate professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, explains how evolution tends to reduce the number of digits.

“In a general sense this trait reflects the developmental-evolutionary rule that it is easier to lose something than it is to regain it.”

Nevertheless, recent research states that being born with six fingers can give humans an augmented manipulation ability.

10. Around 80% of our taste is related to smell

Have you ever wondered why you can’t taste anything properly when your nose is blocked?

The human nose is a crucial organ. It not only helps you smell and breathe, but it also filters your blood and mucus to clean your lungs. And help avoid infections.

Hence, our nose is the first step in tasting food. The olfactory system sends signals to the brain, which then sends a message back to the taste buds.

This is why taste cannot function properly when a person’s nose is blocked.

Final Thoughts

These are just some mind-blowing aspects of human behavior and bloody functions. You probably know about other fun tidbits or insightful curiosities about the human condition.

Sorry, I almost forgot! That thing about your ears and nose lengthening as you age it’s actually accurate, but it happens because of gravity, not natural growth. 😅

Gravity also explains why you are tallest when you first wake up and might be up to one centimeter shorter at the end of the day. The soft cartilage between your vertebrae will get compressed throughout the day and expand while you sleep.

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