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.

Image: FUHMariaM

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.

Image: camilo jimenez

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.

Image: cottonbro studio

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!

NAME ANCESTRY

14 Surprising Origin Stories Behind State Names In The USA

Image: Pin Adventure Map

Ever wondered where most US states’ names come from? From Native American roots to foreign or made-up words, the stories behind many of them are riddled with surprising historical references. Although the origin of some US states’ names is fairly obvious, many derive from unexpected people or places. The origin of names like Colorado, Montana, or Nevada are easy to infer —especially if you know a bit of Spanish— but many others have Native American origins with intriguing meanings. Some are even derived from fiction. If you ever wanted to know where names like Oregon, Connecticut, or Wisconsin come from, you are in the right place. Enjoy the surprising etymologies behind some of the names that make our country.

Image: Joshua Woroniecki

Interestingly, for a state whose main economic activity is agriculture, the word Alabama comes from the Choctaw language and can be translated as "plant-cutters" or "vegetation pickers", recalling the farming practices of the Native Americans that lived in this area.

Image: olio creative

Alaska is a corruption of an Aleut word that means "mainland", but can be translated literally as "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". This is one of those names that manage to bring poetry into a word as simple and down-to-earth as land.

Image: Vital Sinkevich

This one comes from… a Spanish adventure novel! Bet you didn’t expect that. In Las Sergas de Esplandin by Garcia Ordez de Montalvo, a book from the 1500s, there is a fictional place called the "Island of California". Even when the modern state of California is clearly not an island, some die-hard fanatic of the novel decided to bring the name to life here in the U.S.

Image: Juliette Dickens

Derived from the Algonquian word quinnehtukqut, which can be translated as "besides the long tidal river", in reference to the river Connecticut. If you are wondering what the "tidal" part means exactly, this is because the Connecticut River's flow and level are effectively influenced by tides along much of its course. Certainly some amazing insight into the rigorous knowledge of local hydrology that Native Americans managed to accrue over the centuries.

Image: Luke McKeown

Although the origin of this name is disputed, there are two main theories. One suggests that the islands may have been named after Hawaii Loa, their traditional discoverer. However, others have speculated that it is actually derived from the ancient Polynesian word hawaiki, meaning "place of the gods".

Image: NEOM

Another crazy one. Although the name was first claimed to be derived from a Shoshone word that meant "Gem of the Mountains", it is highly likely that the word was fabricated by George M. Willing, and meant as a practical joke.

Image: Stéfano Girardelli

Quite literally, "land of Indians", using a Latin suffix. The word Indians originally referred to the ancient dwellers of the shores of the Indus River, in South and Central Asia.

Image: NOAA

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" said Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz, right after a rampant tornado literally lifted her house in the air and took it to God knows where. Well, this US state’s fame for violent winds predates even the first settlers, since Kansas is a Native American word used by the Dakota, strongly related to the idea of "wind".

Image: Drew Beamer

This state owes its name to an Iroquoian word that means "land of tomorrow". Quite a blockbuster-worthy movie title, if you ask me.

Image: Mercedes Mehling

The origin story behind the name of "The Pine Tree State" is still disputed. However, there are some interesting theories. One states that it derives from "mainland", as a form of distinction from the many coastal islands in the vicinity. Other theories propose that it was named in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen of England, or after the province of Mayne in France.

Image: Anthony Cantin

To the Native Americans that lived in this region, Missouri meant "town of the large canoes", as the Missouri tribes were renowned for their skill in making dugout canoes.

Image: Ashley Levinson

A largely disputed one. Many suggest that the name has Spanish origins, being similar to other words like orejón (meaning "big ear") or orégano, in reference to a type of plant (similar to the Mediterranean oregano) that grows in the southern part of the state.

Image: Donnie Rosie

This is the only state that has a part of its founder’s name in it. It is widely believed that Pennsylvania means "Penn’s Woodland", and was named as such in honor of Sir William Penn, father of its founder William Penn.

Image: Brydon McCluskey

This is probably a French corruption of a native Miami word that meant "it lies red" or "river running through a red place", in reference to the bed of the river Wisconsin.

If our quick dive into the peculiar world of US state names wasn’t enough to quench your curiosity, stay around! We will keep uploading more content related to language and the weird stories and etymologies behind many English and foreign words.