31 Why Strong Teeth Look Yellow
Yellow teeth are stronger than white ones, since the natural color of our teeth is actually a light yellow or gray rather than bright white. That slight tint shows through the dentin beneath the enamel and still belongs to a healthy, intact tooth. Products that aggressively whiten teeth often do so by altering the tooth surface, and overuse can permanently weaken the structure.
32 Soft Diets Shrink Growing Jaws
Chewing on dense foods as children stimulates jaw growth and usually ensures room for adult teeth, but our modern soft diet removes that stimulation and leads to stunted jaw growth, crowded teeth, and major orthodontic work for many people. When kids mainly eat soft, processed food, their jaws do not get the mechanical workout that tougher, more fibrous diets once provided. The weaker stimulus means the bones of the face can develop smaller and narrower than they otherwise would.
33 The Myth Of Tooth Worms
People used to believe toothaches and other dental problems were caused by “tooth worms” that lived inside teeth and consumed them from the inside out. For centuries, medical texts and folk traditions described these imaginary worms as the direct cause of decay and pain. Healers tried to drive them out with smoke, herbs, or crude dental tools, thinking they were attacking a living parasite rather than diseased tissue. The idea persisted in different cultures until modern dentistry and microscopy finally revealed that bacteria and decay, not worms, destroy teeth.
34 Nearsighted Eyes See Better Underwater
A very nearsighted person can see more or less normally underwater because the faulty refractive index of the eye is partly negated by the water’s refractive index. On land, myopia makes distant objects blur because the cornea bends light too strongly at the air–cornea boundary, so images focus in front of the retina. Underwater, the cornea loses much of that refractive power because water has a similar refractive index to the cornea, which cancels some of the eye’s over-focusing.
35 The Overnight Eye Sealant Gunk
The “sleep” in your eyes you notice when you wake up was produced to help seal your eyes in an airtight fashion when your eyelids are closed. By forming this seal, it prevents the tears in your eyes from spilling over your lids and running down your cheeks. At the same time, it helps keep the tears that coat your eyes from evaporating while they are shut.
36 Heartbreak Slows Your Gut Down
People can’t eat after a breakup because the body goes into survival mode and shifts how it runs basic functions. In this state, there are fewer constrictions and relaxations of the muscles in your stomach and bowels. That reduced movement slows down the digestion of food. With your gut motility dialed down like this, even normal meals can feel unappealing or sit heavily, so eating becomes difficult.
37 How Skinny Stomachs Stretch More
Contrary to popular belief, a skinny person can actually consume more food than an obese person. Obese people carry more fat in their midsection and around their organs, which limits how far their stomachs can expand. A skinny person lacks this internal fat padding, so their stomach has more room to stretch during a huge meal. That difference in available space is why many competitive eaters are surprisingly skinny despite the enormous amounts of food they consume.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
38 Woman Who Scratched Into Brain
In Massachusetts, a woman known only as M., a former health care worker living with HIV complications, developed a relentless itch on the right side of her scalp after a shingles outbreak left the skin numb. No creams or psychiatric drugs helped, and one morning she woke with greenish fluid on her face and learned in the emergency department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that she had scratched through her scalp and skull into her brain. Surgeons cleaned and grafted the wound, but the phantom itch drove her to rub away skin grafts until staff on a locked rehabilitation ward resorted to a foam football helmet and taped mitts at night to keep her from injuring herself. The brain injury had left her partially paralyzed and estranged from her children, and she controlled the still-present itch with trimmed nails and soft tools instead of the unchecked scratching that had nearly killed her.
39 Living With No Burp Syndrome
No burp syndrome, a condition formally called retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction, causes the cricopharyngeus muscle to not relax and prevents air from leaving the stomach. Instead of venting upward as a burp, swallowed air builds up and causes bloating, chest or abdominal discomfort, gurgling sounds in the neck, and excessive flatulence. Doctors can treat it by injecting Botox into the cricopharyngeus muscle to weaken it, which allows trapped air to escape and often relieves the symptoms.
40 You Really Were Anus First
Humans are deuterostomes, meaning that the first opening to form in the early embryo is the hole that becomes your anus, not your mouth. In this group, the blastopore, an initial dimple in the developing ball of cells, goes on to form the digestive tract’s exit, while later openings become the rest of the gut. In simple terms, at one point in your development you really were nothing but an asshole in progress.
RE: Fact #46 (Human Genes Borrowed From Microbes) – Radiolab did an awesome Infective Heredity episode. The fact that mammals can carry their young inside, with a membrane that keeps the fetus safe, actually comes from a virus, way different than what people usually think of when they talk about evolution.
RE: Fact #4 (Self Cleaning Spiral Pee Stream) – Yeah, and female urethras are just way shorter, so it’s simpler for bacteria to get up to the bladder.
Hey, I’m a med student, planning on being a urologist. This is actually the biggest thing causing UTIs in women. Guys have a urethra that’s roughly eight inches, but for women, it’s only around two. That makes it way, way easier for bacteria to climb up to the bladder.
Seriously, who chooses to become a urologist?
That sounds awesome. Yeah.
RE: Fact #4 (Self Cleaning Spiral Pee Stream) – Yeah, pubic hair kinda helps keep bacteria out. Plus, good hygiene and wiping correctly are super important too. Any kind of intercourse or anything going in there just makes you more prone to getting bacterial or yeast infections. And after peeing, you really gotta make sure everything’s completely empty. So, it’s way more involved than just “how we’re designed, ” ’cause if it was just that, everyone with a vagina would constantly have UTIs, and obviously, that’s not the case for everyone. Oh, quick side note: vaginas clean themselves, and that acid in the secretions is actually strong enough to bleach undies!
RE: Fact #38 (Woman Who Scratched Into Brain) – It would be perfect if she could just damage the exact spot in her brain that causes the phantom itch.
RE: Fact #7 (Kissing Baby To Train Immunity) – I was kissing my newborn nonstop. It had nothing to do with antibodies. Speaking as a dad here.
RE: Fact #3 (The 30 Year Chromosome Mistake) – I bet so many lab folks and grad students got really stressed for years. Trying to find that last chromosome must have driven them crazy.
It’d be like this: > Student: “There’s only 23” > Advisor: “You must have miscounted – there should be 24. Check again” This keeps going until the student either completely loses it and quits, or finally starts seeing a 24th chromosome.
He wasn’t really that wrong, though. We have 23, and one of those is fused. Our cousins, gorillas and chimps, have 24.
Okay, it’s true that one of our chromosome pairs came from two different ones joining up. But there’s no reason to treat that fused one as anything but a single chromosome now. Fused ones act exactly like normal chromosomes. So, the original scientist wouldn’t have been able to tell its evolutionary past just from watching.
RE: Fact #2 (Brain Cluster Linked To Orientation) – What does ‘control sexual behavior’ even mean, though? Just saying it’s connected to sexual activity doesn’t explain anything about how strong, how it happens, or how often animals experience it. Does having more cells automatically lead to better pathways? And what about the higher concentration of nerve endings in females? Someone who knows their stuff should weigh in here; I’m way out of my league, but I really want to learn.
RE: Fact #25 (The Itchy Pinworm Breakfast Cycle) – I remember once I was trying to get intimate with an ex. She’d almost fallen asleep while I kept pushing forward. Eventually she slipped off her pants and I started kissing around her lower area. Then I spotted some white stuff near her eye and thought, “Wow, she really needs better wiping.” Suddenly I realized those little bits were moving. Panic shot through me when I saw tiny worms crawling out of her and my mouth had been right there. I freaked out and left. Telling that story still gives me chills.
That was just the sperm you left behind last time. It sprouted, spotted its dad, and then sprinted off.
RE: Fact #50 (Love Mimics A Chemical High) – Don’t forget those other meth‑like emotions, obsession, delusion, insomnia, sexual excitation, jealousy, and insanity.
RE: Fact #27 (Humans Alone Blush With Shame) – Our macaw can blush and clearly feels ashamed. When she gets excited, like when she falls off her perch while clowning around, the white part of her face turns pink.
RE: Fact #19 (Sushruta’s Ancient Indian Nose Jobs) – When I see things like this, it just makes me think that even though stuff’s still pretty messed up these days, it was definitely way more fu*ked up back in the day.
Things are just a little less fu*ked up each day, seriously. All the really big problems we’re facing now? They’ve been around forever, we just couldn’t fully see or deal with them until lately. It’s like, every time you finally admit a problem is real, the world feels a bit more terrifying, but then somehow it also starts to improve.
It brings to mind that one meme about wishing you could live in olden times. Then the picture shows these two guys in ancient clothes, just sawing some poor fella’s head in half as part of a ritual, and he’s just there, totally calm, enduring one of the most brutal deaths you can imagine.
RE: Fact #39 (Living With No Burp Syndrome) – I’m pretty sure I’ve got this. I’ve burped less than five times in my entire life, but I do pass gas a lot and usually feel bloated.
RE: Fact #46 (Human Genes Borrowed From Microbes) – It’s crazy how some genome hoarders, parasites that just grab any genes from what they eat, work. From a teleological angle, they’re basically borg‑style! They’d make an awesome space opera.
RE: Fact #6 (Testosterone Built Thicker Male Skin) – So, does that explain why women usually have skin that’s softer and feels smoother? Or is it that all those fancy creams really deliver on their promises?
RE: Fact #44 (Extra Hair Whorls, Extra Worry) – Got a double crown and I’m left‑handed.
RE: Fact #5 (Why Beliefs Override Rational Thought) – Huh, it’s kinda wild to realize there’s a real physical reason for why confirmation bias happens.
RE: Fact #44 (Extra Hair Whorls, Extra Worry) – I’ve got a pair of double whorls on top of my head that spin the opposite way. When I was born, the doctors ran a bunch of tests to rule out Down syndrome. And it’s the same idea with kids who have misshapen ears, they’ll check their kidneys because those organs develop around the same time in utero.
RE: Fact #2 (Brain Cluster Linked To Orientation) – Being a gay man myself, I’d say our sexual urges are definitely as high as straight guys’, if not more so. So maybe how big something is really doesn’t matter much?
RE: Fact #25 (The Itchy Pinworm Breakfast Cycle) – I remember learning about those things once in high school science class. Then there was that Dr. Oz episode where he claimed you could self‑diagnose by putting clear scotch tape over your anus, ripping it off the next morning, and checking for worms. Good times, if only I had studied chemistry then.
I had these when I was about 12. There’s a much easier way to diagnose, take a crap, wait a bit before you flush. If your turds wave back at you, you’ve got worms. They will came out to say hello within five minutes or so.
Honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep with Scotch tape stuck to my butt… especially if I thought it might have trapped my own ass worms.
RE: Fact #27 (Humans Alone Blush With Shame) – If you’ve ever seen a dog slip off a sofa and then someone acts like it was intentional, you’ll know that claim isn’t really true.
I once watched a cat try to hop onto a table, completely miss its target, and then just stand beside it, meowing. It never even tried again, saying something like “I totally meant to fall off the table.”
RE: Fact #34 (Nearsighted Eyes See Better Underwater) – I’m super nearsighted and I’ll probably never admit it, but I’ve always loathed having to open my eyes underwater.
RE: Fact #47 (Thin Temples, Big Artery Risk) – Honestly, God apparently gave the skulls of his most devout followers extra thickness. Oh and holy heck, debating online feels like playing duck-duck-goose with a bunch of drunk five‑year‑olds.
RE: Fact #7 (Kissing Baby To Train Immunity) – Seriously, female anatomy just blows my mind, daily.
RE: Fact #38 (Woman Who Scratched Into Brain) – From now on I’ll sleep with oven mitts taped to my hands just to be safe.
RE: Fact #36 (Heartbreak Slows Your Gut Down) – I’ve lost weight and feel better than ever after that breakup. Thanks to the so-called “depression diet.”
RE: Fact #29 (Humanity’s Mysterious Brain Growth Spurt) – I think it’s all about the food. A huge jump in either how much we had to eat or the quality of what was on our plates. Suddenly people got better nutrition and that meant bigger brains.
RE: Fact #21 (Gut Bacteria Feeding Your Dopamine) – The article makes it clear that bacteria produce half of the body’s dopamine, but not the brain’s because dopamine can’t cross the blood‑brain barrier, only its precursors get in, and the brain makes the neurotransmitter itself. Shitty fact.
RE: Fact #34 (Nearsighted Eyes See Better Underwater) – I’ve been curious about why that happens. Underwater my vision’s almost spot‑on, but up on land I still need either glasses or contact lenses.
We’re basically mermaids, so don’t fight your destiny. Myopia is genetic and common, and because we’re hairless scientists have speculated that early humans might have been at least partly aquatic. So maybe getting more near‑sighted as we grow just gives us better underwater vision, turning myopia from a flaw into a useful trait.
RE: Fact #16 (Singing Around A Speech Block) – This might be kind of like how certain European pop stars can put out popular English songs, even though they speak with a really strong accent. Think about Milli Vanilli, for instance.
RE: Fact #22 (Why Alcohol Burns On Cuts) –
But what about icing the area of the skin before applying alcohol? I’m going to try this next time.
RE: Fact #49 (Everest’s Awkward High Altitude Boners) – I’m gonna have to look at some peer‑reviewed studies before I believe this. It’s unrelated to the Viagra they were taking, right?
RE: Fact #11 (Hard Thinking Burns Same Fuel) – Could be, but keeping your focus up for ages really wears you out. Like, have you ever been behind the wheel for a whole 12 hours or more?
I figure what this is getting at is that just, like, *actively* thinking isn’t what eats up most of our brain’s energy. It’s likely all the different signal processing it does to understand the world that takes most of its constant, background power. Just picture all the automatic stuff your brain handles without you even noticing.
RE: Fact #20 (Why Newborns Cry Without Tears) – Wow, Johnson & Johnson have been deceiving us for ages. ‘No more tears’? What a joke that is.
RE: Fact #18 (Kidneys Once Judged Your Soul) – Really, they both just wind up stewing in that awful devil’s booze. Oh well, “bottoms up on another vodka shot”.
Might be true for your body. For mine, the kidneys run on that good old holy water. “gulps down the wine directly from its bottle”.
RE: Fact #34 (Nearsighted Eyes See Better Underwater) – So nearsightedness isn’t just faulty genetics hanging on. There’s actually an evolutionary edge to it, wow! The aquatic ape theory pops up again.
RE: Fact #42 (Good Smell Signals Immune Opposites) – I just found out I share an immune system with a lot of the homeless people in my city.
RE: Fact #33 (The Myth Of Tooth Worms) – That’s not too far off, I suppose. I’ve definitely heard worse from medieval medical “science.”
Back in the day people would actually pull out a tooth and yank at whatever nerve bits were hanging out, thinking those were the worm’s home. Those were wild times.
RE: Fact #17 (When Cuteness Sparks Weird Aggression) – Honestly, I haven’t seen something this cute before. It just makes me want to physically strike something, which is such a strange feeling. I’ve truly never experienced that kind of urge!
Do you ever get the urge to just hold something cute, like, incredibly tight? When I see something adorable, I just want to give it the biggest, firmest hug. I figure that’s my brain’s aggressive side showing up.
RE: Fact #10 (Your Brain Constantly Eats Itself) – Our whole body does this, actually! It’s always rebuilding itself, which is exactly why people say ‘use it or lose it’.
RE: Fact #32 (Soft Diets Shrink Growing Jaws) – What kind of foods could we give our kids that might help, if not totally solve, the issue? I’m thinking a healthier diet is probably the first step, but what comes after that?
I gotta confess, I didn’t just learn this yesterday. I studied physical anthropology in college and we all noticed the skulls we were looking at had great teeth even though they never saw a dentist. Back then people really had to chew their food hard; tough, dried stuff probably got introduced right after weaning. They also used their teeth as tools, like holding hide while scraping it. My professor told us that kids should start on tough foods once they’re teething, things like carrots, dried fruit and veggies, jerky, etc. Blended baby foods, mashed potatoes, mac‑and‑cheese should be given in moderation along with those tougher options. A personal story: all five of my siblings had huge orthodontic work, palate expanders, braces, the whole lot. I was the only one who didn’t need it and still have straight teeth. I sucked my thumb until about 9 or 10, but instead of pressing it against my front teeth like most kids, it pressed up on my mandible. That constant pressure probably saved me from having to wear any head gear.
RE: Fact #14 (The Hidden Backup Spleen) – Yeah, no such luck for me, I’m not in that special 1-in-10 group. My spleen and I were quite the team, doing our thing, until a football helmet showed up and totally destroyed him, yanking him right out of there.
RE: Fact #17 (When Cuteness Sparks Weird Aggression) – So, does that explain why I sometimes feel like punting a small child as far as possible?
RE: Fact #18 (Kidneys Once Judged Your Soul) – Say you gave up a kidney, how do you even know which specific one is remaining?
RE: Fact #9 (Your Lungs Are Spongy Organs) – I found this out at BodyWorlds, remember? They let you hold a real plastinated lung there. It was super cool, and I actually stopped smoking that summer. Can’t believe it’s been six years already.
RE: Fact #43 (Feeling Sick To Heal Faster) – As a biologist and a true believer in evolution, this kind of language really rips me up. The body isn’t doing anything on purpose; there’s no plan or signal being sent to anyone. Sure, if you look sick people will notice, that can be an extra bonus! In societies where sick folks get help, those who actually show signs of illness have a better chance of survival than those who don’t look ill at all. But it’s not like the body is saying, “Hey, I’ve got a plan!” A clearer way to put it might be that when you’re sick your body shuttles resources into boosting the immune system, which hurts everything else. That explains the low energy. And when you look terrible and feel drained, social pressures trigger caring responses from friends and family. Ughhh.
RE: Fact #30 (Volcano Air Gave Better Teeth) – Yeah, but our air and water hold a lot fewer superheated flaming ashes and cinders, so that’s checkmate on that front.
RE: Fact #10 (Your Brain Constantly Eats Itself) – Phagocytosis actually happens all over your body, not just in your brain. And I can tell you that as a microbiologist who’s put in a ton of hours learning about the immune system. It works by something called invagination.
RE: Fact #45 (How The Blind Still See) – I’m dying to find out what they’re seeing, what kind of nightmares do those people have?
RE: Fact #15 (Why Dry Swallowing Pills Hurts) – Here’s interesting bit about taking pills with water. It’s kinda weird, since it’s not how we normally swallow things. When we have different textures in our mouth, we usually gulp the liquid first, then deal with solid bits. Think about chicken noodle soup; the broth usually goes down before the noodles, chicken, and veggies. So, taking a pill with water usually takes more conscious effort since you’re trying to get both down together.
RE: Fact #36 (Heartbreak Slows Your Gut Down) – It doesn’t have to be a breakup, any kind of news that throws you into deep emotional distress can do it, like a death, illness or an abusive relationship. You’ll feel the stress in your stomach. It’s weird but sometimes stress makes you want to eat more, normally work stress does that for me, but family or relationship stress actually stops me eating.
It might just be how stressed you are. For me, mild stress makes me binge, but when the pressure is extreme I feel nausea and can’t even eat.
RE: Fact #5 (Why Beliefs Override Rational Thought) – Hey, check out these other interesting tidbits about our brains! First, your brain is the only organ in your body that doesn’t have nerves, even though it’s the main control center for your nervous system. That means it can’t actually feel any pain. Second, your brain eats up the biggest chunk of energy from your body. Seriously, it’s only about two percent of your body weight, but it uses twenty percent of all your energy! This power is super important for keeping brain cells healthy and sending out nerve signals. Third, you’ve got around one hundred billion neurons in there, which is like fifteen times more than the entire human population on the planet. This huge number of neurons boosts your brain’s processing power. And finally, your brain is considered the fattest organ in your body. Around sixty percent of it is fat, which is the highest fat concentration in any single organ for a healthy person. Oh, and seventy-five percent of its total mass is water, which helps manage all its different functions.
RE: Fact #23 (When Math Problems Trigger Fear) – My engineering professor used to say, “You all are better at math than 95 % of people, but most of you still struggle with it.”
I study math at uni and it’s basically the same story, we’re terrible at math, which 99% of the population never really hears about.
RE: Fact #32 (Soft Diets Shrink Growing Jaws) – So I learned that chewing on a stick right after eating ice cream is actually good for your jaw and teeth.
RE: Fact #39 (Living With No Burp Syndrome) – I totally had this as a kid! When I was a baby I actually had to burp over the sink because if I didn’t, I’d spit up every time. Then as a child and teenager I felt super jealous of friends who could just burp away while I sat there, all gassy and uncomfortable. Sodas were torture, bubbles and noises in my throat but no real burps came out. And farts? They were a nightmare too. Everything changed when I got to college: beer fixed it. Maybe it was the sheer volume or different kind of carbonation compared to soda, who knows, but it felt like a switch flipped and now I can burp just fine like everyone else.
RE: Fact #13 (Why You Notice Red Cars) – I’ve heard that’s why psychedelic journeys can be super illuminating and also really terrifying. It’s like our brains normally peek through a small opening, like a little window in a barrier. But then, a hallucinogen just takes that entire barrier away. Suddenly, you’re bombarded with all these connections you never even knew existed, which can be pretty amazing but also incredibly overwhelming.
RE: Fact #24 (The Densest Bacteria On Earth) – If you mess up with antibiotics, you might end up needing a fecal transplant from someone else.
RE: Fact #47 (Thin Temples, Big Artery Risk) – I showed my dad who is a neurosurgeon this, and he says he’s never heard anyone say it before
RE: Fact #31 (Why Strong Teeth Look Yellow) – Fun fact: my teeth naturally turn a strange shade, and the dentists can’t pinpoint why, they think the enamel inside just isn’t quite right. Even though they look a bit odd, I’ve never had a cavity.
RE: Fact #8 (Lifespans Measured In Heartbeats) – It’s pretty cool, the way mammal size and heartbeat are connected like that, across all of them.
RE: Fact #40 (You Really Were Anus First) – “At one point you were nothing but an asshole.” Then it just keeps going with another dumb reply that says, “Some people never develop past this point.”
RE: Fact #23 (When Math Problems Trigger Fear) – How do you get over that fear of math? I’m asking on behalf of a friend, yeah, that’s the point!
Enjoy being wrong. Fear of getting it wrong will just hold you back from improving. The whole point is to keep making mistakes and learn from them. But test anxiety has dragged that on through years of schooling, and you need to toss it out. Math feels hard because being wrong isn’t allowed in that world. Walking requires precision too, but it’s a personal skill and you’re free to mess up over and over for years. Babies even laugh when they fall, if we’d punished a child every time they stumbled, we would have called it a tragedy.
RE: Fact #37 (How Skinny Stomachs Stretch More) – They actually train themselves on massive amounts of low‑calorie, high‑fiber foods, heard they munch huge piles of lettuce to bulk up.
Also have a huge meal the day before to stretch their gut out ahead of time. I watched a doc where a guy hit a buffet and went all out before the Nathan’s Hot Dog contest.
Good riddance to the buffet owners. I bet they’re thinking to themselves, “What the hell is happening with my buffet?”
RE: Fact #31 (Why Strong Teeth Look Yellow) – If you ever run into a Green Lantern, those yellow teeth would actually give you an advantage.
RE: Fact #25 (The Itchy Pinworm Breakfast Cycle) – Finally got a fact that feels right, hope I’m not too late. I had pinworms for three whole years. It’s the worst feeling in the world. Imagine staying up every night just waiting for those little guys to go to sleep so you can finally get some rest… Going to school was insane; you couldn’t focus whenever your ass itched that badly. You’d get home, dump into the bathtub, and cry a lot. My mom would come in and rub cream on my butt. Being 14 made all of that super awkward, you never really know how it feels until you’re there. Turns out there was supposed to be medicine that works every time… Drinking it didn’t do anything like the ads said. So I did something different, put it in through my backside. Never seen them again.
At 14 you couldn’t apply your own butt cream without help, or was your mom just that protective?
No, it would freak me out so badly that the itching felt raw and painful, I’d be scared to touch anything at all. If you’re ever in that situation you’ll get why. It’s not just ten or thirty of them; I’m talking about a hundred or two hundred inside my rectum. I’d wake up with little white spots on my underwear, and it was absolutely scary.
RE: Fact #8 (Lifespans Measured In Heartbeats) – Just a heads up, it’s roughly 1.5 billion beats if you weren’t feeling like reading the whole thing.
Going by this calculator, my heart’s already hit 1, 922, 089, 973 beats since I came into the world. Being 46, I should probably be dead by now, right? RIP myself, I guess.
RE: Fact #16 (Singing Around A Speech Block) – I’m not certain if this ties in, but you know how people often sound different, accent-wise, when they sing versus when they just talk?
Yeah, I was gonna bring that up myself! So many folks who aren’t from America sometimes drop their accent when they’re belting out a song. But for some, it sticks around. That’s always caught my attention, how that works.
RE: Fact #19 (Sushruta’s Ancient Indian Nose Jobs) – So, the way he pulled it off was pretty wild. First, he’d get them super drunk. Then, you’d grab a leaf to figure out the exact size of the bit that needed fixing. Next, you’d use that same leaf to cut out a piece of skin, either from the forehead or cheek, but here’s the kicker: you leave a little bit still attached, otherwise it’s just a floppy piece of skin doing nothing. For where the new skin’s going, you really rub that spot raw with a knife and jam two plant stalks into the nostrils to help the nose keep its form. After that, you just slap the skin on and stitch it up. Then, sprinkle it with licorice powder, for some reason. Finally, cover the whole nose and the wound with cotton, and keep pouring sesame oil on it all the time. Boom! New nose!
It’s kinda weird, but modern versions of this exact procedure are actually still done these days! Way more sterile, obviously, but the basic idea still totally works!
RE: Fact #9 (Your Lungs Are Spongy Organs) – It’s pretty funny how people think lungs are like balloons, right? Like, that’s such a cartoon idea. Full disclosure though, I’m totally clueless about a bunch of sh*t.
RE: Fact #12 (Beyond Simple XX And XY) – Yeah, that’s just some variation you’re seeing in that specific chromosome pair. And it’s pretty normal; other chromosomes have their own differences too.
RE: Fact #47 (Thin Temples, Big Artery Risk) – Honestly, as a doc who hangs out with neuros every day, I can tell you straight up: they never call it that.
I grew up with a neurosurgeon parent and saw the whole field up close, so I can tell you, people never actually call it that, ever.
RE: Fact #8 (Lifespans Measured In Heartbeats) – It’s also cool how most mammals pee for about the same duration. An elephant, for example, will totally empty its massive bladder in just as much time as a dog or a person.
RE: Fact #11 (Hard Thinking Burns Same Fuel) – So, is that like, energy used per second or something? ‘Cause tough stuff just takes more of your time, meaning your brain’s working harder for longer.
RE: Fact #16 (Singing Around A Speech Block) – In my neuropsychology class, we watched a video of a guy who couldn’t walk right because of some degenerative illness. But he played a ton of soccer as a kid, so if you put a football in front of him, he could move with amazing speed. It showed how walking and handling a ball are distinct skills within your procedural memory.
RE: Fact #48 (How Aging Shrinks Your Brain) – Here’s a quick rundown on keeping your brain sharp as you age. First off, stay active, both mentally and physically. Exercise boosts blood flow all over, especially to the brain, so try to get moving every day. Eating healthy also helps; think heart‑healthy foods like fresh fruit, fish, lean meat, and skinless chicken. And be mindful of alcohol, too much can stir up memory problems and confusion. Keep your mind busy too. Read, play word games, learn a new hobby or skill, enroll in a class, or even pick up an instrument. Consistent mental activity can keep your memory and thinking on point. Staying social matters as well; hanging out with friends and family not only feels good but helps fend off depression and stress. I’ve been reading a lot about what they’re calling COVID brain fog, especially for folks in their 30s to mid‑60s. It’s similar to the cognitive side effects some cancer patients feel during chemo. Even a mild case of COVID can trigger long‑term changes in the immune system and neurons. Studies show that a week or two after a mild respiratory infection, mice had high levels of inflammatory compounds in both blood and the fluid around their brain and spinal cord. Researchers found that microglia, immune cells in the human brain, became activated and stayed reactive for weeks afterward. When microglia are overreactive, the brain struggles with routine tasks like creating new neurons in the hippocampus, a region vital for learning and memory. Why does this matter? Because it shows that even a mild respiratory COVID infection can alter how brain cells function long after recovery. That could explain why many people report trouble thinking or remembering after getting COVID. I know quite a few who’ve had it and say their memory’s weaker and they’re slower to process things. It would be fascinating to see what the long‑term effects look like, maybe even 30 years down the road.
RE: Fact #35 (The Overnight Eye Sealant Gunk) – From the article it says: “The best way to un‑glue eyes that have been shut by gound is to use warm water, soak a washcloth in it, and then gently wipe the eyes until you can open them.” Or just crack your damn eyes open.
I once had my left eye all clogged up with that stuff and it wouldn’t open. I ended up pulling the lids apart with both hands. I probably should’ve washed it off like the article said, but I was just waking up and didn’t think of it.
RE: Fact #1 (Switching Off Half The Brain) – Just had to find out how they do this thing.
The effect shuts down any language and/or memory function in that hemisphere in order to evaluate the other hemisphere. An EEG recording at the same time confirms that the injected side of the brain is inactive as a neurologist performs a neurological examination. Seriously, who even comes up with these ideas? And then, who was the first brave soul to say, ‘Okay, I’m game, hit me up!’ I really wonder what that sensation is like.
RE: Fact #1 (Switching Off Half The Brain) – Wow, that must be fu*king strange, having one side of your brain completely numbed.
You know, sometimes when I’m dreaming, right before I wake up, I get this super tired feeling in the dream itself. I can’t stand up or even keep my eyes open. I just stumble around, barely seeing, or sometimes can’t move at all while everything else in the dream keeps happening. Then I actually wake up and it’s such a relief to shake off that tiredness, getting my energy and sight back. I call that reverse sleep paralysis. I wonder if what they’re describing is kinda like that. Like, one part of your brain is working, totally freaking out, trying to understand why half the lights are out and all the thinking is only on one side.
That really sounds like sleep apnea. Dreams like that often happen to folks who aren’t getting quite enough oxygen when they’re asleep.
RE: Fact #29 (Humanity’s Mysterious Brain Growth Spurt) – I took a few evolutionary biology classes in grad school, but since I’m a molecular biologist the info might not be totally up‑to‑date. People have speculated that a handful of changes probably happened. First, our ape cousins had jaw muscles that ran all the way back to the skull and hooked near the top part of the occipital bone. That arrangement is thought to have limited how big the skull could get, so it couldn’t grow large enough for a bigger brain. As our diets changed, we guess those muscles might have shortened, easing the pressure on the skull by attaching farther from its base. That would need at least two separate tweaks: one that left a “vacant” skull and another that actually enlarged the brain. For some reason I can’t recall what evidence was cited to suggest or support a brain‑size increase to match a bigger skull, but I do remember we talked about it. Oops, sorry! 🙂
Yeah, people say it all started when we learned to cook and soften food so it’s easier to chew and digest. That let the jaw muscles shrink and free up space for our brains to get bigger.
Sure thing, but let me know if I’m off base… The easier digestion gave us a boost of energy, which helped our brains function better and sparked the kind of development that followed.
RE: Fact #1 (Switching Off Half The Brain) – Just so you don’t have to look it up, the usual side effects from this include shivering, feeling weak or numb on the body part controlled by that brain side, disinhibition, and aphasia if they numb the language part. All these things stop once the anesthetic wears away.
This is still super fascinating, and I guess how it hits you changes from person to person, especially if someone has gone through this test a bunch of times. I’m curious about how long the numbness actually lasts. And what if the working side of the brain adapts or changes? Could that cause problems when the other side wakes back up? So many thoughts! Could this ever be used to create backup systems in your brain? Could something like this lead to that movie with Scarlet Johansson about using your whole brain becoming a reality? Wild to think about!
RE: Fact #24 (The Densest Bacteria On Earth) – We’re basically walking hosts for all the bacteria, holding about ten times more bacterial cells than human ones. Guess what popped into my head at 3 a.m.? “EDIT” It’s not ten times, think of it as roughly a fifty‑fifty split with a slight tilt toward bacteria. I call them my pets.
Just imagine how amazing our bodies are as an environment for growing. Closed off in space, full of fluid and resources, hardly any outside influence most of the time, with tons of effort and energy devoted to keeping bad stuff out, sounds like a perfect place to settle down. Assuming you’re meant to be there or you’re okay with all that security, that’s true. If they start hanging a picture of your face on the wall, though, that changes everything. But I’ve heard being swallowed whole and dissolved isn’t a terrible way to go.
RE: Fact #10 (Your Brain Constantly Eats Itself) – The same thing happens with your bones! You’ve got these cells called osteoclasts that munch away old bone, and then osteoblasts come in to build up fresh stuff. Basically, your whole skeleton gets swapped out every few years. That’s how your bones can totally change their shape and strength to handle all the different pressures life throws at you.
RE: Fact #46 (Human Genes Borrowed From Microbes) – It’s wild that people are just now starting to take horizontal gene transfer seriously, and it really throws the tree‑of‑life model into question. Can you imagine what we’ll discover tomorrow?
RE: Fact #43 (Feeling Sick To Heal Faster) – >My colleagues and I propose that the distinctive changes that occur when you get sick [help you solve these problems]automatically. > >Fatigue reduces your level of physical activity, which leaves more energy available for the immune system. > >Increased susceptibility to nausea and pain makes you less likely to acquire an infection or injury that would further increase the immune system’s workload. > >Increased sensitivity to cold motivates you to seek out things like warm clothing and heat sources that reduce the costs of keeping body temperature up. > >Changes in appetite and food preferences push you to eatin a way that supports the fight against infection. > >Feelings of sadness, depression, and general wretchedness provide an honest signal to your friends and family that you need help.
Our brain’s basically just a front‑end so our gut microbes and immune system can run the whole body.
RE: Fact #15 (Why Dry Swallowing Pills Hurts) – I always get water in my mouth first, then just pop the pill in and swallow it fast. I’ve done it like that since I was little ’cause I really hate medicine’s taste.