The human body

Bathtubs of snot? The "gross but true" guide to human anatomy

Image: Tima Miroshnichenko

From the tiny, unseen creatures residing on your eyelashes to the incredible volume of mucus your nose produces annually, the inner workings of our anatomy are packed with crazy facts that sound like science fiction. Prepare to have your mind blown as we discover 10 of the most astounding, hard-to-believe truths about our very own body. Get ready to never again look at your saliva, bones, or even your earwax in the same way!

Image: César Couto

Did you know that about 50% of people have tiny creatures living on their eyelashes? These eyelash mites are about a third of a millimetre long. They can sometimes cause allergic reactions, but most people never find out they’ve got them. We bet you're calling your ophthalmologist for a consult right now!

Image: Franco Antonio Giovanella

Earwax is produced by your body to protect the lining of your ear canal by trapping dirt and repelling water. But what will probably baffle you is that by the time it reaches the outer ear, the wax has been inside your ear for about a month. No wonder it tastes so disgusting!

Image: Andrea Piacquadio

You usually only notice snot when you’re making too much of it, that is, when you are sick. But can you guess how much mucus an average person produces in a year? The answer will shock you: about 100 gallons, enough to fill two bathtubs! While the sticky goo is rather unpleasant, you wouldn’t want to go without it. Mucus creates a layer of protection between you and the outside world, so thank God it’s there.

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And what about your saliva? How many bathtubs do you think you can fill with your year's supply? Saliva helps break down and swallow food, fights bacteria, and neutralizes acid, among many benefits. So, if it is that good for you, it’s no surprise your mouth produces tons of it. In fact, it makes between 250 and 730 quarts a year, equivalent to filling a small swimming pool over a lifetime.

Image: BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA

That pink squidgy blob inside your head is stuffed with facts, memories, and dreams. Your brain is constantly crackling with tiny pulses of electricity, performing ten quadrillion calculations per second. They’re brilliantly complicated machines that scientists are only just beginning to understand. One thing is for sure: an average person has 1460 dreams in a year, about four dreams every night, or to put it another way, around the same as the number of miles from Denver to Nashville.

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Clever as your brain is, it wouldn’t be able to do much without the network of nerves that link it to the rest of your body. Nerves bring information from your senses to your brain and deliver orders from your brain to the other organs. As you can imagine, if we were to measure that amazing network, we would end up with a lot. In fact, every person has a whopping 44 miles of nerves running through their skin. Can you imagine?

Image: Ximena Mora

The outer layer of your skin is called the epidermis and consists of dead cells that provide protection from dirt and germs. What you probably didn’t know is that your body is constantly losing and replacing these cells. Also, your dead skin cells sometimes absorb water and swell. This is the reason the ends of your fingers go wrinkly in the bath. But don’t worry, the entire surface of your skin is replaced every month.

Want to play some more? How much do you think the average adult’s skin weighs? Just under 7 pounds, or as we like to say, the same as three pineapples!

Image: Ashton Bingham

Human hair feels soft, but it’s one of the strongest fibres on the planet. The number of hairs on your head ranges from around 9,000 to 140,000, depending on what sort of hair you have.

Everyone loses about 50 to 100 hairs every day, but this process can speed up in men as they get older. Hair generally grows about half an inch a month, or 6 inches a year. Yet, if you don’t cut it regularly, it will most likely stop growing when it’s about 5 feet long.

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This fact is not for skeptics: the average adult’s skeleton weighs the same as one car tyre. In fact, our skeleton only makes up about 15 per cent of our overall body weight. So, next time someone tells you that big bones is the reason for them being overweight, be suspicious.

Another fun fact? Your collarbone is the last of your bones to stop growing when you become an adult. Called the clavicle, it doesn’t stop growing until you’re about twenty-five.

Image: The Lazy Artist Gallery

Human muscles, on the other hand, make up about 40% of your body weight, and there are more than 600 of them. Yet, you use just 200 when you take a step, and almost all of them when you throw a ball.

The biggest muscle in your body is the _gluteus maximus_—a.k.a your bum. The smallest is in your ear, the stapedius, just about forty thousandths of an inch. The jaw muscle is the strongest by force, and the eye muscles are the busiest—10,000 movements an hour when reading! Our favorite muscle, though? The heart, of course!

IN GOOD SPIRITS

Do You Know The Origin Of These 10 Alcoholic Beverages?

Image: Adam Wilson

You probably know many alcoholic beverages that you enjoy drinking alone or combined in different cocktails, but do you know where their names come from? From whiskey and gin to rum and absinthe, the origins of spirits have fascinating stories to tell. Are you ready to explore them? You will surely learn some curious facts to share at your next party!

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Whiskey is one of the most consumed alcoholic beverages in the world. It is produced by distilling malt fermented with cereals such as wheat, barley, corn, and rye, and the resulting spirit is subsequently aged in white oak barrels.

In the Middle Ages, alcoholic beverages were classified into two main groups: "aqua ardens" (burning water) and "aqua vitae" (water of life). Whiskey falls into the category of "aqua vitae." The Latin term was translated into Middle Irish as usque beatha, which in turn derived into usquebaugh, pronounced: "wiskyba," giving rise to "whisky" (Scotland) and "whiskey" (Ireland and the United States).

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The word brandy is an abbreviation of brandywine, an English term dating from the early 17th century. It comes from the Dutch brandewijn, meaning "burnt wine" or "burning wine," referring to the distillation process.

Brandy is made from the distillate of wine or fermented fruit pulp, primarily grape skins. There are different types of brandy. Perhaps one of the best known is cognac, a high-quality wine distillate, named after the city in France where it is produced.

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Gin is a distilled drink made from juniper berries, among other ingredients. The term gin is an abbreviation of the Old English word genever, which in turn derives from the Dutch jenever and the French genièvre. Moreover, all these words trace back to the Latin word for juniper, juniperus.

This drink emerged among European monks during the Middle Ages as a medicinal liquor. Then, in the 17th century, gin gained popularity in England and transitioned into the modern drink we know and love. Nowadays, gin is used to prepare different cocktails, including Tom Collins, Negroni, and the popular Gin & Tonic.

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The first references to this drink date back to the mid-17th century in Barbados, a small Caribbean island with sugar plantations that was under British rule for several centuries. When rum began to be produced on a large scale in the colonies, the English imported it to Europe and popularized it throughout the continent.

There are many theories about the origin of the word rum. The most accepted one suggests that it comes from the English slang word rumbullion which means "great tumult." This term might have originated in the Devonshire area on the southwest coast of England. From rumbullion, it became known as rum in English, rhum in French, and ron in Spanish.

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Vodka is an emblematic drink of Eastern European countries and is used to prepare a multitude of cocktails, including the Martini Vesper, Moscow Mule, White Russian, Cosmopolitan, and Bloody Mary, among others. The word vodka comes from the Russian word voda, which means "water." The ending -ka makes it diminutive, translating to "little water."

Vodka is a distillate that comes from the fermentation of potatoes, wheat, barley, grapes, beets, or any plant rich in starch. Originally, the aim was to obtain a simple, alcoholic liquid composed of ethanol and water, with no pretensions in terms of aroma or flavor. It also needed to have a high alcohol content to cope with the harsh Russian winters. Traditionally it has a graduation around 40º, although there are vodkas that reach 80º and up to 96º. It is hard to believe that it’s simply called water!

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This distillate made mainly from corn, was first introduced in the United States in the 18th century. The first known producer was Reverend Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister. Legend has it that the clergyman established the first distillery in Fayette County, Kentucky, with the help of a Southern farmer who provided surplus corn from his harvest.

Although it was born in Fayette, this variety of whiskey was named after another nearby county, Bourbon County, where the spirit began to be produced on a large scale. The names of both Kentucky counties have their origin in the same historical figure: Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat related to the House of Bourbon.

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The word vermouth comes from the German word wermut, which means "wormwood," one of the main herbs used to make this beverage. This fortified wine, flavored with different botanicals (flowers, herbs, roots, and spices), has been used since ancient times for medicinal purposes. However, the modern version we know today was first introduced in Turin, Italy, in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, vermouth became a global trend thanks to the rise of bars and cocktails, as it was —and still is— an essential ingredient to prepare classic drinks such as Martinis, Negronis, and Manhattans.

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Tequila is, without a doubt, a staple of Mexican culture and a famous drink around the world. In ancient times, it was considered a gift from the gods. Today it’s served as an aperitif or combined with other beverages and ingredients to prepare cocktails.

This spirit is produced from the distillation of fermented juice obtained from the heart of a plant known as "blue agave." Its name comes from the Nahuatl word Tekilan, which means "place of the workers."

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This popular anise-flavored spirit, made from wormwood oil and other herbs, has a high alcohol concentration. With a bitter taste, absinthe’s color is usually pale green. Its name derives from the Latin absinthium, which in turn comes from the Greek apsínthion, meaning "wormwood."

The use of wormwood to make alcoholic beverages dates back to the 1st century, but it was not until the end of the 18th century, in French-speaking Switzerland, that the drink we know today was created. At the end of the 19th century, absinthe, often called "Green Fairy," was the most popular spirit in Europe, enjoyed by all social classes, especially artists and bohemians. However, years later its consumption was limited because it could cause hallucinations, which gave birth to the term absinthism.

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Peru and Chile, neighboring South American countries, share many things: the Andes mountain range, common ancestors, customs, and, notably, the debate over the origin of pisco. The true birthplace of this spirit has long been questioned, with both countries claiming it as their own. What we do know is that the name pisco may derive from the Quechua word Pisku, meaning "bird."

Peruvian and Chilean pisco are different varieties but have in common that they are grape distillations, made similarly to brandy and cognac. Despite the ongoing controversy, no one should miss trying a good pisco sour!