15 Most Amazing Facts About The Human Body
Human Body FactsThis article brings together some amazing facts - fifteen to be precise - about the human body that perhaps were previously unknown to many out there. They have been carefully compiled, so if you are eager to know more about the fifteen most amazing things about our own bodies, just read on.
1. The skin is the largest organ of the human body, spanning roughly about 1.9m² or 20 sq.ft. in an adult male. Another characteristic of the skin is that it constantly flakes away, so that a person sheds about 18 kgs or 40 lbs of skin in a lifetime.
2. The testicle of a man produces 10 million new sperm cells each day. That is enough to restore the entire world’s population in just 6 months.
3. About half-a-million egg cells constitute the average female ovaries, though just about 400 of them ever get the chance to create a new life.
4. Human bone is comparable to granite when it comes to supporting weight. In fact, a matchbox-sized block of bone can support a mammoth 9 tonnes, which is 4 times the weight that concrete can support.
5. The digestive acids present in our stomach are strong enough to dissolve zinc. However, the good thing is that the cells lining the stomach wall renew themselves at a rate that is faster than what it would take for the acid to dissolve them.
6. It is about 100,000 times that the focusing muscles of our eyes move everyday. A daily walk of around 80 km or 50 miles is what is required to give our leg muscles the same amount of workout.
7. The combined heat given off by the average human body in just 30 minutes is enough to bring to a boil half a gallon of water.
8. There are over 300,000 million capillaries or tiny blood vessels inside the lungs. Taken another way, they would stretch for 2400km or 1500 miles if laid end to end.
9. A postage stamp sized foreskin sourced from circumcised babies takes just 3 weeks to grow skin that can cover 3 basketball courts. Fortunately for us, the laboratory grown skin comes in handy for treating burn patients.
10. It is about 50 tonnes of food and 50,000 liters or 11,000 gallons of liquid that a person in the west will consume on an average in his lifetime.
11. As many as one million individual filters constitute each kidney, together filtering about 1.3 litres or 2.2 pints of blood every minutes and can expel about 1.4 liters or 2.5 pints of urine each day.
12. It is our eyes through which we receive virtually 90 percent of all the information that reaches us, making us to be basically visual creatures.
13. The time taken for each finger and toe nail to grow from base to tip is 6 months.
14. The human body tends to grow by about 8mm or 0.3in during sleep. This gain in height is however temporary, only to shrink back to the original size the next day. The reason for this behavior is that the force of gravity acts to squeeze the cartilages like sponge during standing or sitting.
15. Just 60 seconds is what it takes for a single human blood cell to make one complete circuit of the entire body.
26 Jun 2009
Michael Jackson..."King Of Pop" died.
LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the "King of Pop" and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50. Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, confirmed his office had been notified of the death and would handle the investigation.
The circumstances of Jackson's death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper.
Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — remains the biggest-selling album of all time, with more than 100 million copies worldwide.
The public first knew him in the late 1960s, when as a boy he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the music group he formed with his four older brothers. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC," and "I'll Be There."
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched voice punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks second only to his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. In fact, he united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.
But as years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, often wore a germ mask while traveling and kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him. The case took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Jackson was preparing for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. He was in rehearsals in Los Angeles for the concert, an extravaganza that was to capture the classic Jackson magic: showstopping dance moves, elaborate staging and throbbing dance beats.
Singer Dionne Warwick said: "Michael was a friend and undoubtedly one of the world's greatest entertainers that I fortunately had the pleasure of working with........we have lost an icon in our industry."
Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital as word of his death spread. The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center, which is near Jackson's rented home, was roped off with police tape.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died," a woman boarding a Manhattan bus called out, shortly after the news was announced. Immediately many riders reached for their cell phones.
In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.
"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend sent to his telephone. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."
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