Buzz
The ancient Greek temple at Delphi famously carried the inscription, ‘Know thyself’. Yet, as Ben Franklin wisely noted, this is often easier said than done. 'There are three things that are exceedingly difficult,' he wrote: 'steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.' To assist in this challenging pursuit, here are ten intriguing facts about you that may have escaped your attention.
10. Your stomach is more intelligent than you think
Your stomach contains more neurons than the brains of some animals. Its intricate network of neurons is so sophisticated that some refer to it as the 'second brain' of the human body. While other body parts – like the palms of your hands – also host a considerable amount of neurons, your stomach stands out for its ability to think independently. This means you can digest food without conscious effort. Ever felt anxious, upset, or overly satisfied for no clear reason? Or struggled to focus after eating a huge meal? It's likely that your stomach is influencing your mood and focus – another good reason to choose your meals wisely.
9. You’re as hairy as a chimpanzee
At first glance, this claim may seem exaggerated (unless you have hypertrichosis), but in reality, you are just as hairy as most other primates. Like chimpanzees, humans have hair covering much of our bodies – though it’s much finer and shorter than our primate relatives. On average, each square inch of your body contains between 500 and 1000 hair follicles.
And the hairiest animal? The sea otter, which boasts nearly a million hairs per square inch, outshines all other creatures.
8. You’re a miracle
Biology instructors often kick off the school year with a lighthearted observation: 'Well done,' they say. 'You’ve already conquered the hardest challenge you'll ever face.' When students look confused, the teacher continues to explain. Every one of us started as a perfectly symmetrical cluster of cells – yet we've all ended up with a front, back, and sides. How does a round cell evolve into forming complex openings like eyes, ears, and nostrils? It must flatten, twist, and morph into shape. This process creates the first hole you ever had – your anus. This often becomes the teacher’s second joke: All humans begin as arses – though some remain that way throughout their lives.
7. You have a viral inheritance
One of the biggest revelations from the Human Genome Project was the surprising amount of viral DNA embedded in our genetic code. Viruses, unable to reproduce on their own, must inject their DNA into a host cell to replicate. If the virus happens to integrate into a sperm or egg cell, the virus’s DNA can be passed down to the offspring, present in every single cell. This process has occurred so frequently throughout human evolution that a staggering 9% of our genome is derived from viruses.
6. You cannot tickle yourself
…unless you have schizophrenia. Tickling is considered a significant part of human bonding, particularly between parents and their children. As we age, we may grow to dislike being tickled – but most people are unable to resist the involuntary twitching and laughter that comes when someone else touches us in a certain way. However, as we all know, we cannot tickle ourselves because our brain anticipates the sensation. For individuals with schizophrenia, it’s more difficult to distinguish their own touch – many will laugh just as much from a feather directed by their own hand.
5. Your body is actually younger than you are
You are constantly changing. You breathe in, you breathe out, you eat, and you eliminate waste. You take in new molecules and release others continuously. If you're past puberty, it's likely that no part of your body is exactly the same as when you were a baby. This raises a fascinating dilemma, still a topic of intense debate among philosophers: if every part of you is different today, are you still the same person you were at birth?
4. You are partially blind
Unfortunately, your eyes have a design flaw: each one has a blind spot. This blind spot is large enough that it could cause significant problems for someone who loses sight in one eye. Thankfully, the presence of two eyes means that for most of us, these blind spots go unnoticed.
3. You have stripes
Many mammals sport stripes: cats can have distinct lines or patches, which emerge when specific cells begin to express different genes, passing these variations on to neighboring cells. Humans aren't an exception – it's just that our stripes are typically hidden. You can usually only spot these stripes – known as Blaschko’s Lines – when a disease affects one type of cell but not the neighboring ones.
2. You may not have free will
The debate is often heated: are you truly free to make your own choices, or are your decisions shaped by influences beyond your control? Numerous arguments have been presented on both sides of the issue, but here I’ll focus on the experiment conducted by Benjamin Libet on a patient.
While observing the patient's brain, Libet instructed him to move his hand whenever he felt like it. Libet discovered that the brain registered the intent to move the hand even before the patient consciously became aware of it. This implies that our actions might be impulsive, without our active decision-making. It only appears to us, after the fact, that we acted freely, as we tend to rationalize our actions once they have occurred.
1. You can count without consciously counting
When presented with groups of up to four objects, you don’t need to count them to know how many there are. For small sets, your brain instinctively recognizes the number of items. The Piraha tribe in Brazil, who have no numbers in their language, are unable to count – yet even they can understand quantities up to four.
