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You won't believe where the fastest muscle in the human body is! Check out the most interesting features of your body!
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00:00Hey, not to freak you out or anything, but every second, your body creates 25 million new cells.
00:06I'll do the math for you.
00:08That means that in about 15 seconds, you'll have produced more cells than there are people in the United States.
00:14Think about that next time you feel you haven't been productive enough.
00:18It may account for only 2% of our body mass, but our brains actually take up 20% of
00:24our blood supply and oxygen.
00:25Our brains can also produce enough energy to supply a light bulb.
00:30That is, when we're awake.
00:32Ever thought about what the largest human organ is?
00:34It's your skin, and it's thickest on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet.
00:40I know, I know, I hate dusting too.
00:42But you are particularly responsible for that layer of fluff on your TV screen, you know.
00:48Every human being sheds about 600,000 particles of skin every hour.
00:53And most of the dust around your house is actually composed of that.
00:57So yes, we're all rather flaky.
01:00These days, it's considered more of a beauty mark.
01:02But the reason why people are born with a cupid's bow is actually quite intriguing.
01:07As our features start to develop before we're even born,
01:11it appears that the cupid's bow is actually the place where our face, well, zips up.
01:16The right side of the face and the left side of the face, that is.
01:20While in humans, it may not be that obvious.
01:22If you look at your dog's nose, you'll see it has a straight vertical line just under the nostrils.
01:28That's right, dogs have this zip too.
01:31Did you know you were born with more bones than you have today?
01:34At birth, we have somewhere around 300 bones.
01:38But as we age, some of them fuse together.
01:41That's why in adulthood, we end up having about 200 bones.
01:45Although your teeth are technically part of your skeletal system, they're not actually bones.
01:50They do look sort of similar and do share some characteristics, like being the hardest element in your body.
01:56Why the misconception, though?
01:58Well, it's mostly because both teeth and bones contain calcium.
02:02To be a bit more specific, about 99% of the body's calcium is in your bones and teeth.
02:08The remaining calcium is in your bloodstream.
02:10So what makes them different, you might ask?
02:13It's in how the bones and teeth heal and how you should take care of them.
02:17While bones can repair and heal themselves, your teeth aren't able to do that.
02:22That's why we have dentists.
02:23We don't only have unique fingerprints.
02:26Our tongues are one of a kind as well.
02:29Research has shown that those approximately 10,000 taste buds on our tongues are laid out in a unique pattern,
02:35specific for each one of us.
02:37About 80% of what you believe is taste is actually smell.
02:41The combination of taste and smell that we perceive is what we come to know as flavor.
02:47That's probably because our sense of smell is around 10,000 times stronger than our sense of taste.
02:54So, the next time you're tuning in your favorite song, try to pay some attention to your heartbeat.
02:59Do you hear that?
03:00Yep, that's right.
03:02While listening to some music, your heartbeat will sync with the rhythm of the song.
03:06And speaking of that healthy ticker of yours, just in case you're wondering, it beats on average about 75 times
03:13per minute.
03:13This means that in any given year, a human heart can pump enough blood to fill an Olympic-sized pool.
03:20What's even more fascinating is that if you were to connect all your blood vessels and to end, you'd be
03:25able to circle the Earth four times.
03:27But that would really hurt, so don't try that.
03:30We are the only species on this planet to have a chin.
03:34There's still some debate around this subject in the scientific community.
03:38But one of the reasons seems to be to make our jaws stronger.
03:42As humans have continued to evolve, their teeth and the muscles in their jaws got smaller and smaller.
03:47So they needed something to help with increased jaw resistance.
03:52That transparent part of your eye is called the cornea, and it helps the light go through.
03:57It's also the only part of your body that isn't connected to any blood supply.
04:02Why?
04:02Because it's especially designed to get its oxygen straight from the surrounding atmosphere.
04:08If you took out all the fat found in a healthy human body, it would be enough to make seven
04:13bars of soap.
04:14We also produce enough saliva in our lifetimes to fill two swimming pools.
04:18Great expectorations.
04:21Ever wondered how much we actually eat during our whole lifetimes?
04:25I'll spare you the math.
04:27An average-sized person eats nearly 66,000 pounds of food throughout the whole course of their lifetime.
04:33How much is that for scale?
04:35About six elephants.
04:36And that ain't peanuts.
04:38Each of us carries around 4 pounds of bacteria on average at any given time in our bodies.
04:44But hey, don't go running to the doctor just yet.
04:47Most of that bacteria is actually good and have specific functions in the human body,
04:53like digestion and our immune systems.
04:56If you want to have an accurate depiction of your height, make sure you measure yourself in the morning.
05:01That's because you're about 0.4 inches taller right when you wake up.
05:06Trust me, it isn't magic.
05:08It's merely because, throughout the day, the soft cartilage between your spinal bones gets squashed down and compressed,
05:15making you seem shorter by the time you go to bed.
05:18We know that we have some sort of energy moving around our bodies,
05:22so we actually do emit a tiny amount of light.
05:25It's too weak for our own eyes to see, though,
05:28but if you think about it, you're actually glowing as we speak.
05:32The humorist and author Mark Twain once said,
05:35Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.
05:39How true.
05:40But not all humans can blush, and those that do, blush to different degrees.
05:45Is there some sort of evolutionary reason for why we blush?
05:49It seems so.
05:50Blushing is a way for us to communicate without using any words,
05:54just like dogs wag their tails when they're happy or excited.
05:57So, basically, blushing can be translated to,
06:00I'm embarrassed, similar to how we shiver when we're cold.
06:04If the human eye was a camera, it would have about 576 megapixels.
06:10Our vision of the world changes throughout our lives.
06:12As soon as we're born, we see the world upside down for a bit.
06:16Our brain is programmed to show the inverted image formed on our retina by the convict's eye lens.
06:22But that doesn't kick in immediately after birth.
06:25Hey, I'm sure you enjoy that weekly cardio and weightlifting,
06:29but the strongest muscle in the human body is definitely not the one you've been working on.
06:34It's actually in your jaws.
06:36Your jaws are designed similarly to a nutcracker.
06:39Why?
06:40So you can get powerful bites with as little energy as possible.
06:44The fastest muscle is located in your eyes.
06:47That's probably how we came up with the expression,
06:50in the blink of an eye, for when something happens really quickly.
06:54Did you know that your nose comes with a built-in reset feature?
06:58It happens when you sneeze.
06:59Sneezing is basically your nose's way of getting rid of all the bad particles
07:04it has inhaled up to a certain point.
07:06If you think that's bad, it's not.
07:09Did you also think your pinky finger is something weak and pretty much useless?
07:13Well, it actually packs up to 50% of the strength in your hand.
07:18We still haven't figured out precisely why people yawn.
07:21Now, we aren't the only creatures to do it.
07:24Baboons, guinea pigs, and the Siamese fighting fish yawn to warn other animals to stay away.
07:29Penguins seem to yawn during courtship rituals.
07:32And snakes yawn at times after a good meal.
07:35Boy, there's a happy snake.
07:36Some theories suggest it helps us get more oxygen in,
07:40while others indicate that it helps with regulating our body temperatures.
07:44Either way, we still don't know for sure.
07:47Our ears and noses are the only organs that continue to grow throughout our lifetimes.
07:52Our eyes stay more or less the same size as we grow up.
07:56By the time we're 3 months old, our corneas should technically reach their full size.
08:02Let's see how many rare body features you or your friends have.
08:07Elf-like ears are pretty rare.
08:09They are different because of the pointy part on the outside.
08:12There's an additional cartilage fold in the middle area around the part we know as the scapha.
08:19Most people are right-handed, while about 10% of them are left-handed.
08:23But there are those with no preference for using a left or right hand.
08:28They can play guitar, use scissors, right, and perform all other activities with any hand they want.
08:34But only 1% of those can do it, and we know them as ambidextrous.
08:39And if you can talk out of both sides of your mouth, you may have a future in politics.
08:45Less than one-third of the population can flare the nostrils on command.
08:49The muscle in charge of this is weak because we have nothing to use it for.
08:58People that live in Nepal and Tibet have a specific gene that allows them to breathe at such high altitudes.
09:06Most people feel sick in such conditions, but they are unique because they can breathe normally.
09:12It's a super-athlete gene they have there.
09:15You can trace it back to denosovans, a group that lived in the mountainous areas around Asia around 40,000
09:21years ago.
09:22This gene brings them a higher level of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin.
09:26That's why the body can distribute oxygen more efficiently.
09:29So, unlike us, they won't feel oxygen-deprived when performing certain tasks at such altitudes.
09:37Arcus salinis is also pretty rare.
09:39It's a white or gray arc you can see above and below the outer region of the cornea.
09:45In other words, the clear dome-like thing that covers the front part of your eye.
09:49It's something common in older people.
09:52This arc may become a complete ring around the iris, the colored portion of the eye.
09:58Some people naturally don't need to sleep too much.
10:01The majority of us cannot take a couple of nights of lost sleep without consequences.
10:06But a small percentage out there has this special gene that allows them to get away with sleeping six or
10:13even fewer hours, which is about two hours less than average.
10:17From 1 to 3% of the population has this so-called clock gene.
10:22They can be more productive because they don't feel tired as we do when we sleep less.
10:28Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and some other famous historical figures were some of them.
10:34Now, most people have three cones in their eyes, so we can see a broad color spectrum.
10:40But some have a rare fourth cone.
10:43We call them tectachromas.
10:45And because of this feature, they can see up to 100 million colors.
10:49The rest of us average folks see about one million colors.
10:53It's a rare body feature you can mostly find in women.
10:58Have you heard of heterochromia?
11:00It's a rare condition where people have eyes of different colors or different colored sections in each eye.
11:06Sometimes this condition can lead to differences in color in some other parts of the body, like hair or skin.
11:13Or it can result in irises with two different hues.
11:17Heterochromia is a condition that happens because, due to genetics,
11:21some people have unevenly distributed melanin in their bodies.
11:25And only 1% of the population has it.
11:29Chimerism is a rare genetic condition where a person has two completely different sets of DNA,
11:35which we call genomes, in their body.
11:38One genome is predominant in one organ or generally one area of the person's body,
11:43whereas the other is in other tissues or organs.
11:47Even animals can have this condition.
11:50Both animals and humans with chimerism can even have two different blood types in their body simultaneously.
11:56And we may be talking about different amounts of each of those types.
12:01It would be cool to have bones so dense, almost nothing could break them.
12:05Some people have them, thanks to an LRP5 gene mutation.
12:10People with these rock bones have 8 times denser bones than most.
12:15When someone says there's a thing called golden blood,
12:18it's easy to imagine small particles of blood running through some people's veins.
12:23But it's not quite like that, nor does it have a golden color.
12:27It's called this way because we're talking about a pretty rare blood group
12:31only about 40 people in the world have.
12:34These people don't have all Rh blood cell antigens,
12:38which, in simple terms, means anyone who has another rare Rh group
12:42can have this type as donor blood, which is pretty helpful.
12:47Hey, check this out.
12:49It's something called a long palmar muscle,
12:51and it was way more important to our ancestors than to us.
12:55Some of them were pretty big fans of climbing trees,
12:58so they developed a specific muscle and ligament to perform that through time.
13:02And some people still have it even today.
13:05To check if you have it, just put the back of the palm on a flat surface.
13:10Now touch your thumb and pinky together and lift them slightly.
13:14If you see your ligament popping out,
13:16yup, you have a long palmar muscle.
13:20Some have photo sneeze reflex,
13:22which is a special condition where people uncontrollably sneeze in response to bright light.
13:28So, the sun makes 10-35% of people sneeze.
13:33If you have a perfect pitch, you should know it's really not that common.
13:38It's when someone is able to identify and tell different musical notes based on their frequencies.
13:43So, if you hear a D sharp, you can tell it's a D sharp without too much guessing.
13:48Fewer than 1 in 10,000 people say they can have a perfect pitch
13:53and is still not sure if you get it naturally or if it's necessary to develop it at a very
13:59early age.
14:00Because research showed you can develop a perfect pitch,
14:04it takes a lot of training and consistency to immediately tell the key and notes of your favorite song.
14:11Not many people have naturally blonde hair.
14:14And red hair is even rarer.
14:16Less than 2% of the population has it.
14:19And 11% of the human race have naturally curly hair.
14:25We all learned in school that the heart is leaned toward the left side of the chest.
14:29But certain people have it on the right side.
14:32It doesn't necessarily mean this condition would have some negative consequences,
14:37but it can affect the rest of the organs.
14:40Around 22% of the human race has Morton's toe.
14:44And Morton wants it back.
14:46Just kidding.
14:47Morton's toe is when your second toe is longer than the big one.
14:51If you look carefully, you'll see the Statue of Liberty has Morton's toe.
14:57Some have this tiny bump on the inside of the upper part of their ear.
15:01It's known as Darwin's bump or Darwin's tubercle.
15:05Some even believe people who have this little bump
15:07potentially sense voice tonality better.
15:12Only 60% of people across the globe can produce a roaring noise in their heads.
15:17They do it by using their jaw.
15:19They control a tiny muscle in the jaw
15:22that prevents it from hearing certain noises like chewing.
15:25But when these people flex it,
15:27they can hear a roaring noise from inside.
15:31About one-third of the population can gleek.
15:35And just 1% can do it on command.
15:38Not that useful, but still rare.
15:414% of people have Raynaud's syndrome.
15:44This is when a part of your body, usually your fingers or toes,
15:48start to turn white when exposed to low temperatures.
15:51It's your body's overreaction to cold or distress.
15:56Now, check your fingerprints.
15:57Are they looped, whirled, or arched?
16:00The first two types are more common,
16:02while just 5% of people have arched fingerprints.
16:06Not many people have birthmarks, only 10% of them.
16:10In most cases, birthmarks are oval and have a coffee-type color.
16:16Dimples may seem like something common,
16:18but only a quarter of the world's population have them.
16:21You can have one or two dimples.
16:24And they're something we inherit,
16:25so if your parents have it, mm-hmm.
16:28Human feet.
16:30You know, those sometimes smelly things at the end of your legs?
16:33Yeah, those.
16:34Well, those are adapted to support us while walking upright.
16:38So, the bones and ligaments in there are quite rigid.
16:41But some people have floppier feet that might indicate our ancestry.
16:46A study of nearly 400 people showed that about 1 out of 13 had them like that.
16:52Primates use their feet like we use our hands.
16:55They climb trees with agility.
16:57So, they need to have floppy feet to do it efficiently.
17:00But humans from 2 million years in the past also had less rigid feet.
17:05Scientists believe studying people with this rare bone structure may help understand how ancient humans walk.
17:11And also, whether this floppiness actually helps in climbing, too.
17:17Now, our height, the shape of our body, and skin color depend on where our ancestors used to live.
17:23But we can adapt to new conditions, even within our own lifespan.
17:28For example, if you move from plains to the mountains, you'll eventually develop more red blood cells to compensate for
17:35the lack of oxygen.
17:37And naturally, if you move from a colder climate to a hotter and sunnier one, your skin will get pigmented
17:43to adapt.
17:44Now, a second pair of arms would come in handy in a lot of situations.
17:49But an extra pair of fingers might be helpful, too.
17:53About 1 in every 500 people is born with 6 digits on either hand.
17:58In most cases, the extra fingers are considered useless and removed.
18:03But research has shown that those who've left them could do lots of everyday things with just one hand.
18:09Like tying their shoelaces or playing video games with game pads.
18:13Okay, how many fingers am I holding up now?
18:17About 1 in 25,000 people are born with the thumbs on their hands having 3 flanges instead of the
18:23usual 2.
18:24Giving their hands a very extraordinary look.
18:26And when it happens in combinations with 6 fingers, which isn't too rare, by the way, the picture is even
18:33more cryptic.
18:34Such a condition doesn't bring much discomfort.
18:37In fact, some actions are even easier done with a thumb that has an extra flange.
18:41Like thumbing your nose, perhaps.
18:44It's been believed for a long time that a person could distinguish more than 10,000 smells.
18:50Some research done not long ago showed that people were able to distinguish more than a trillion smells.
18:56We also remember them better than anything else.
18:59And smells can even evoke some distant memories.
19:02Like with Grandpa and the big baked bean party when you were a kid.
19:06We can accidentally digest small objects such as plastic items, glass, coins, and many other small objects.
19:14They'll make their way through the digestive tract within 48 hours.
19:17And there's even a man who managed to eat a whole airplane.
19:22Now, it took him years, though.
19:23But little by little, he finished his metal meal with no trouble at all.
19:28I had a joke here about passing a landing gear, but I'll skip that one.
19:33Now, every person has their unique smell that can't be confused with anyone else's.
19:38It's exactly the same mechanism that allows other animals to find members of their family in packs and distinguish them
19:45from strangers.
19:46Still, if you have an identical twin, you will both have almost the same smell.
19:51Scientists found that body odors of identical twins are 10 times more similar than those of unrelated people.
19:58Unfortunately, a well-trained dog would still easily distinguish you two.
20:03Now, most people have three types of cones in their eyes, allowing us to see millions of colors.
20:08Women typically see more shades, but sometimes they see so much more that they're literally unable to comprehend the difference.
20:16That's thanks to a fourth cone in their eyes that enhances their vision a hundredfold.
20:21And what's more, the number of women born with this extra cone is about 12%.
20:26But only a few of them can actually use it, because in most cases, it remains inactive.
20:32Now, imagine falling from the roof of a 10-story building and getting away with a few bruises and scratches,
20:38but no broken bones whatsoever.
20:41Such a genetic anomaly was discovered back in 1994, and it is associated with the LRP5 gene.
20:48It makes a person's bones about 8 times denser than normal, which basically makes them almost indestructible.
20:54There's a whole extended family in Connecticut that has this mutation, and all 20 members of it have extraordinarily dense
21:01bones.
21:02Scientists who did research of the blood samples of this family say they have the strongest skeletons in the world.
21:09Many people think that a cleft chin is a sign of a strong and independent character.
21:14But it's really a gene mutation, which results when the bones or muscles in the lower jaw don't fuse completely
21:20during development inside the womb.
21:22Just like many other anomalies, it's hereditary, which means, yes, you can blame your parents.
21:29However, if a person has a cleft chin, it doesn't necessarily mean that their offspring will have a tooth,
21:35because environmental factors in the womb or the presence of modifier genes, genes that influence other genes, can prevent it.
21:43There are no two identical brains in the world.
21:46Brain structure highly depends on conditions in which it develops and grows.
21:51And so, we all have something individual to us, even on a biological level.
21:56And just like your fingers, your tongue, too, has a unique print on it that won't be like any other
22:02in the world.
22:03Nah, let's not compare tongues.
22:05A less impressive but not less rare condition is the so-called double crown.
22:10A crown is that patch of hair on top of your head that goes in a spiral.
22:15It's pretty hard to miss if you have short hair, especially because it's the hardest part to smooth down.
22:21People normally have one, but there are individuals unlucky enough to have two and double the smoothing trouble.
22:27Still, some believe having a double crown is, on the contrary, a sign of good luck or even high intelligence.
22:36On a similar note, do you ever wake up and look at your tussled hair with frustration?
22:41And now, imagine having this disheveled look forever and not being able to do anything about it.
22:46It's called the uncommable hair syndrome.
22:49Your hair's always sticking out every which way, and no amount of water or hair gel can tame it.
22:55Heterochromia makes your eyes two different colors, say, one hazel and the other blue.
23:00It has to do with the levels of melanin in your body, a pigment that affects the colors of your
23:05skin, hair, and, yes, your eyes.
23:08There's also partial heterochromia, which is only a part of one of your eyes is differently colored.
23:14It's not too common in humans, but I'll bet you've seen it in dogs, huskies in particular.
23:19This breed is naturally predisposed to this condition, and it looks super cool.
23:25Now, the rarest genetic condition there probably is, called the golden blood, can be a lifesaver for millions of people.
23:32There are just 40 known carriers of this blood type in the world.
23:36They don't have any RH blood cell antigens, which means anyone can accept their blood, even those with extremely rare
23:43blood types.
23:44And although their blood isn't golden in color, it's certainly worth more than just gold.
23:50Now, turn your arm palm up on some flat surface and touch your pinky and thumb together.
23:55Now, look at your wrist. Do you see a muscle getting tense under your skin there?
24:00If you don't, that's okay.
24:02It only means you're in about 10% of people who don't have the palmaris longus.
24:07It's a muscle that scientists believe used to be useful for hanging and gripping in our ancestors.
24:12In modern humans, though, it has no real value, so we're evolving to drop it altogether.
24:18About 1.5% to 1% of people in the world have an extra hole next to their ears
24:24that serves no clear purpose.
24:26And it is pretty useless, although not dangerous either.
24:34According to estimations, only about 6% of the world's population can't solve the Rubik's Cube.
24:41Despite it being just a skill like any other, most of us have to learn it, either by watching tutorials
24:47on the web or asking someone for help.
24:49And only a small percentage of people can actually solve it on their own.
24:53If you're one of them, you're a truly rare individual.
24:57Raising your eyebrows in surprise is a common thing, and raising just one to express skepticism isn't rare either.
25:04But it depends on which eyebrow you usually raise.
25:08If you can do this trick with either eyebrow, you're actually unique.
25:11Since your eyebrows are controlled by muscles, you can train yourself to raise either of them at will.
25:17But it often takes time and conscious effort.
25:20Moving your ears is about the same.
25:23Not so many people can do it.
25:25And there are even fewer of those who can wiggle just one ear instead of both.
25:29It's an ancient feature that dates back to our primate ancestors, who used their ears to control their surroundings.
25:36And of course, it's still present in most mammals.
25:40Now, while most people around the world are right-handed, being a lefty puts you in a minority.
25:45That's not surprising.
25:46But a really remarkable thing is ambidexterity.
25:50Only about 1% of the world's population can use both their hands equally well.
25:56Meaning they could hold a spoon, pick their nose, or write in their notebook switching hands with no trouble at
26:02all.
26:02How useful would that be?