The Human Body: 40 Little Known Facts – Part 3

In 2004, a rapist fooled DNA tests by surgically implanting a tube filled with blood in his arm and tricking the laboratory technician into having a blood sample taken from it.

27. Paper cuts hurt so badly because paper does more microscopic damage to the skin, and there often isn't blood to protect nerves afterward.

28. The human cornea extracts oxygen directly from the air. It has no blood supply.

29. Pus is just white blood cells that died fighting off infection.

30. There is about 0.2 milligrams of gold in our bodies, most of which is in our blood.

Cornstarch (a common thickening agent in foods), will spike your blood sugar level faster than pure sugar.

32. It has been suggested online that the drug Cabergoline has a possible recreational use in reducing or eliminating the male refractory period, thereby allowing men to experience multiple ejaculatory orgasms in rapid succession by inhibiting the hormone prolactin and at least one scientific study supports those speculations.

33. Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including the neurotransmitter hormones, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, the same compounds released by amphetamine, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side effects such as increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years.

34. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has estrogen in its list of known cancer-causing agents. Estrogen is a natural hormone circulating in significant amounts through the bodies of half the world's population.

35. There is a positive correlation between vitamin D and testosterone levels in men. The more sunlight exposure a man gets the more likely it is that he has elevated testosterone levels.

The average 70 kg (150 lb) adult human body contains approximately 7×10^27 atoms and contains at least detectable traces of 60 chemical elements, some of which are metals that were formed during massive explosions like Supernova.

37. A study done by the neurobiologists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that the smell of women's tears will reduce men's sexual arousal and testosterone levels.

38. The over-stimulation in modern society caused by artificial light, electronic devices, internet connection, abundant food, processed foods, and other conveniences of modern life sometimes result in depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders due to being desensitized or oversensitized to various aspects of our own chemical control systems and chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin.

39. Women’s nervous system takes a bit longer to “settle down” and return to normal than it does in men. This means is that as an argument winds down, a man will start feeling calmer relatively quickly, while a woman’s body remains in an agitated state even after the apparent resolution of the argument. Because everyone’s brain takes cues from the body, her brain realizes it’s still angry. So it starts casting about for other things to be angry about. Bam: Suddenly the argument flares up again, about a new subject.

40. Harry D. Andrews (1890-1981) was a young man when he was declared dead from spinal meningitis. He was revived with experimental adrenaline. He recovered, served in France in WWI. He later found out that his fiancé left him. Later he proceeded to carry 56,000 pails of stone from a river to build his own three-story castle.