amazingfacts... superhuman
senses
blood vessels
The total length of all the blood vessels in the human body is about 97,000 km. This is over twice the circumference of the Earth's equator.
eating
In a lifetime we spend the same amount of time eating as we do blinking. We spend about five years eating, and about five years with our eyes shut because we are blinking.
brain cells
As we get older the brain loses almost one gram per year because its nerve cells die and cannot be replaced.
skin flakes
We discard about 10 billion skin flakes every day. Over a year this mounts up to nearly two kilograms.
brain size
A mouse has a larger ratio of brain size to body mass than a human, it used to be believed that this ratio was a sign of intelligence - if this were true mice would be about twice as clever as humans.
eye
A rod in the human eye can detect a single photon of light. This is the amount of light that might reach the eye from a candle, a mile away.
tongue
The life span of a taste bud is ten days but the cells are constantly being renewed, roughly one every ten hours.
achievements
population
It is estimated that in mid 2001, there were 9,000 people aged 100 and over in the UK.
left-handers
A left handed person finds it easier to open a jar than a right handed person. This is because a left handed person can supply a stronger anticlockwise turning force than a right handed person. However a right handed person will find it easier to tighten the jar up afterwards.
CN tower
The tallest structure in the World - the CN tower in Toronto - is over half a kilometre high.
speed of light
Einstein's theory of relativity actually shows that everything is not relative. The speed of light is always the same no matter how fast you are going - away from or towards the beam.
evolution
fern
The complexity of the organism has no bearing on the number of chromosomes it has: humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while a species of fern holds the record for the most, with 630 pairs.
silkworm
The silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) is the only completely domesticated insect. They are no longer found in the wild and have been cultivated for so long that they cannot fly.
mulberry leaves
Silkworm larvae require a tonne of mulberry leaves to produce a 5kg of silk.
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