[Mens Militis (OP)]

Thought I'd start a new Topic here about our amazing Human Anatomy. I know there are many incredible facts and details about our body that should make for some rather fascinating conversation.

I'll Start with this one:

A single blood cell travels a long way during a lifetime--more than 2 1/2 times around the earth--yet all in one body!

[Mens Militis (OP)]

I have a question here, I have heard several times throughout my lifetime that something within our body can either wrap around or stretch to wrap around the Earth once. I want to say that it is our intestines, but their combined length is only 7.9 meters or 26 feet.
So what is this that I am thinking of? Or am I confusing it with something else?

[Quantumcat]

I never heard that. perhaps if you cut the skin into a reeeeeeally thin strip it may do that

Am I dead? Am I alive? I'm both!

[Ylide]

Nerves or blood vessels maybe, if you count all the capillaries.  I am dubious of the magnitude, 14,000 miles seems a bit extreme...a couple hundred, maybe.  





This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

[Mens Militis (OP)]

Hmm... perhaps.
But I am almost certain that what ever it is, is something more tangible than capillaries, like an intestine. I just watched part of a NOVA episode that talked about the String Theory. In part of this episode, they were trying to explain the possible spacial constraints or lack of that these "strings" could take up - how a string of considerable length could be reduced in size (in the spacial sense) by the almost infinite positions it can take by being folded. (Like folding a peice of lint into a very small ball).
When they were explaining this, I could swear that they mentioned as an analagy how this (thing I can't seem to remember) could fit within the human body.
So am I completely delusional? Too many sleepless nights in front of the computer or what? LOL
Anyway I'd still like to figure this out, but it wasn't my original intent on starting this topic. So without further ado.. any facts you all may want to share? (I'm currently researching.)




"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" - Einstein

[nilmot]

I think this is truth.

If we layout our lungs flat (include millions of alveoli). The surface area is able to completely cover a tennis court (approximately 450m x 450m). Just one lungs!!

Tom

[bezoar]

I remember hearing somewhere that if you stretched out all the human DNA, it would encircle the globe -- more than once I think.

And here's a question -- what's the largest organ of the body?

Bezoar

[Quantumcat]

I remember!!!

It's all the DNA from all your cells. It's wrapped up in histones but there's like at least a couple metres in each cell or something (or maybe half a meter lol I can't remember) but there's three trillion cells or something.

Am I dead? Am I alive? I'm both!

[Quantumcat]

Oops I didn't see bezoar's reply. I just read the fact that the strings were folded up in a special way and leapt down to type it lol, sorry bezoar

Am I dead? Am I alive? I'm both!

[chris]

Just in the course of reading this post you will have made several metres of new DNA !

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[Donnah]

The largest organ is skin.

[bezoar]

Yea Donnah, most people don't get that right.

Bezoar

[Mens Militis (OP)]

DOH!

Yes I do believe it was DNA. I should have put that together -- DNA, String Theory...

I don't know why i was thinking it was a body part like the intestine...oh well. Thanx all.

Wierd Fact:

Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days - almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime.




"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" - Einstein

[tweener]

And I thought my kid's snakes were the pros at shedding skin []


----
John

[jojo]

if we shed our skin so often.. then how come our freckles and stuff doesnt disappear?? - because freckles form from exposure to sun, it cant be genetic right? so when mitosis happens how come we dont regenerate the skin that we were born with?? jst wonderin

[cuso4]

quote:Originally posted by Mens Militis


Yes I do believe it was DNA. I should have put that together -- DNA, String Theory...




"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" - Einstein

"String Theory"? Are you talking about what I think you are talking about? What's String Theory got to do with DNA? I thought String Theory is a new thing in Physics where you abandon the particle theory model and think of every as made of strings of energy.

Angel

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

[Mens Militis (OP)]

Cuso, You are right... I only mentioned that during the TV episode on String Theory that I watched, they mentioned something from our body that when extended fully can wrap around the Earth, which happens to be DNA. They were explaining something and used DNA as an example. Something to do with the string size in relation to its environment I think.

Anyhow, here's a few more Wierd Fact:

Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and water to fill a ten-gallon tank.









"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" - Einstein

[Donnah]

Some people could make a lot more than seven bars of soap.[}:)][]

[Mens Militis (OP)]

Hello again all,

Well I wanted to answer Jojo's question, but I found a web site that answered it much better than I could've. So the following will be an article from BBCi.
URL- newbielink:http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/skin/skin.shtml [nonactive]

So here goes, and I quote:

*****************

Largest organ

Your skin is your largest organ. It covers your entire body and has a surface area of around 2 square metres. Its thickness varies from 0.5mm on your eyelids to 4mm or more on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet. In total, it accounts for around 16 percent of your body weight.

Tough physical barrier

Your skin consists of two main layers: the outer epidermis and the inner dermis.

Cells in the deepest layer of your epidermis divide constantly to make new cells. The new cells are pushed towards the surface of your skin. They eventually die and become filled with keratin, an exceptionally tough protein. Keratin provides your body with a durable overcoat, which protects deeper cells from damage, infection and drying out.

Cells on the surface of your skin rub and flake off steadily and are continuously replaced with new ones. About every 30 days, your body produces a totally new epidermis.

Your inner dermis consists of strong collagen and elastic fibres pierced by blood vessels. It also contains touch, pressure and pain sensors and is packed with hair follicles, sweat and oil glands. The oil glands produce a lubricant that keeps your skin soft and prevents your hair from becoming brittle.

Temperature control

Your skin's blood vessels, sweat glands and hairs play a crucial role in regulating your body temperature. When you need to cool down

Your blood vessels widen and allow heat to escape through your skin
You start sweating, and as your sweat dries, it uses heat from your skin and cools you down
Your hairs lie flat to make sure little warm air doesn't get trapped between your skin and your hairs
When you need to retain heat, the opposite happens – your blood vessels narrow, you produce less sweat and your hairs stand up on end to trap warm air around your body.

Skin colour

Your skin contains specialised cells called melanocytes. They produce melanin, a brown substance, which absorbs some of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Fair-skinned people only have melanin in the lower layers of their epidermis. People with dark skin have larger amounts of melanin in all layers. Freckles and moles are nothing else but small patches of skin with more melanin than in the surrounding area.

Wrinkles

As you age, the number of collagen and elastic fibres in your dermis decreases. Additionally, you lose fat from the tissue under your skin. As a result, your skin becomes less elastic and begins to sag and wrinkle.

*************

Much more information than necessary, but it's well put.





"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" - Einstein

[jojo]

wow that was an interesting read, thanks for that Militis

jojo