Amazing Facts
The human stomach can dissolve razor blades
If you ever swallow a razor blade, don’t panic. The human body is more capable than you think. Acids are ranked on a scale from 0 to 14—the lower the pH level, the stronger the acid. Human stomach acid is typically 1.0 to 2.0, meaning that it has an incredibly strong pH. In a study published in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, scientists found that the “thickened back of a single-edged blade” dissolved after two hours of immersion in stomach acid. That’s just one of many fun facts about the human body you never learned in school.
There were roughly 2.5 billion T. rexes on Earth, but not all at the same time
Humans have been marveling at the size of T. rexes ever since first putting a full skeleton together. Now, thanks to research published in April 2021, scientists have a better idea of exactly how many of them once called Earth their (temporary) home. According to the team at the University of California, Berkeley, approximately 2.5 billion of these dinosaurs existed across more than 127,000 generations. They reached this estimate by taking into account the dinosaur’s body size, sexual maturity, and energy needs. By the way, this is what T. rexes actually sounded like
. (Spoiler alert: It’s not like in the movies!)
Water can exist in three states at once
This is called the triple boil—or triple point—and it is a specific temperature and pressure where materials exist as a gas, a liquid, and a solid simultaneously. The triple point, which is also the only situation where all three states of matter can coexist, is different for every material, according to the University of California, Santa Cruz. Water reaches its triple point at just above freezing (0.1 degree Celsius) and at a pressure of 0.006 atm.
Helium can work against gravity
When helium is cooled to extreme temperatures, just a few degrees away from absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit or -273 degrees Celsius), it turns into a superfluid, meaning it can flow without friction, Scientific American reports. It can climb up and over the sides of a glass, and it can leak through molecule-thin cracks in a container. And here’s another interesting fact about this element: While helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, it may actually be harmful to the human body—one of the many problems with birthday balloons no one talks about.
Solar flares are incredibly powerful
The energy solar flares release is equivalent to millions of 100-megaton atomic bombs exploding at once, according to NASA. It’s a good thing the Earth’s atmosphere protects us from their radiation.
It’s impossible to burp in space
When you burp on Earth, gravity keeps down the solids and liquids from the food you just ate, so only the gas escapes from your mouth. In the absence of gravity, the gas cannot separate from the liquids and solids, so burping essentially turns into puking.
Plastic can end up as vanilla flavoring
Researchers have figured out how to transform plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring with genetically engineered bacteria, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Green Chemistry. The authors of the study explain that the demand for vanillin is “growing rapidly,” given that it’s found in a wide variety of food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, cleaning, and herbicide products. But don’t expect to be eating plastic-bottle-flavored ice cream anytime soon: This research only demonstrated that this conversion is possible—not whether it is safe for human consumption.
About half of your body is bacteria
Experts estimate that the human body consists of 39 trillion bacteria and 30 trillion human cells—a roughly 1:1.3 ratio. In the past, researchers thought we were much more bacteria than human, with a ratio of 10:1.
Men are more likely to be colorblind than women
The genes responsible for the most common type of colorblindness are found on the X chromosome, the National Eye Institute explains. Even if women have the genes on one of their two X chromosomes, a properly functioning gene on the other one makes up for that loss. If men inherit the gene on their only X chromosome, they’ll become colorblind.
We have no idea what most of the universe looks like
About 96 percent of the universe
is made up of dark matter and dark energy, which are undetectable to humans, Space.com reports. Scientists believe this is because the particles that make up these substances don’t interact with regular matter or light.
