Amazing Body Facts and Trivia

by Challoner, Jack

• ISBN13: 9780785827436
• ISBN10: 0785827439
• Format: Spiral Bound
• Copyright: 2011-05-31
• Publisher: Chartwell Books

Summary

The human body is truly incredible. This book features over 400 fascinating facts, busted myths, and amazing statistics about your body, drawn from anatomy, physiology, medicine, history, and mythologyùwhich are sure to astound, amuse, inform, and entertain.

Author Biography

Jack Challoner studied physics and is a trained science teacher, and has been writing books on all aspects of science and technology, and for all ages, for twenty years. He has written books on the brain, on reproduction, on the history of medicine, on nutrition and on cell biology. Jack has also worked in television, researching and advising on programs on a wide range of topics including human biology. Along the way, he has picked up some amazing insight into our amazing human body, and he wants to share it with you, in this book.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
Muscles And Skeleton
The hard facts	p. 26
Big and small	p. 51
Which muscles make you smile?	p. 63
Bone up	p. 68
What is cramp?	p. 108
The long and short of it	p. 111
A stitch in time	p. 118
Old bones	p. 123
Don't overstretch yourself	p. 124
On its own	p. 128
Take four tissues	p. 130
Breaking the fall	p. 131
Face facts	p. 133
The spinal countdown	p. 134
Ham it up	p. 152
Dem bones	p. 154
Rib cage	p. 156
Bones we have only one of...	p. 157
Well connected	p. 184
Digestion And Appetite
More to fat than meets the scales	p. 16
Bloody kidneys	p. 17
Plumping up	p. 20
Supertasters versus supertaskers	p. 29
Not so sweet	p. 35
Mouthwatering mixture ...	p. 47
A world inside your gut	p. 53
The stomachùthe inside story	p. 56
Bad taste	p. 69
Free detox	p. 76
You've got a lot of guts	p. 79
What's that smell?	p. 86
Milk, anyone?	p. 100
Airs and graces	p. 179
The Brain And Nervous System
Third eye	p. 15
Sleeper cells	p. 17
Plentiful support	p. 30
Needles and pins	p. 31
Cranial nerves	p. 36
Outer layers	p. 52
Getting emotional	p. 58
Your brain feels no pain	p. 62
That's me in the comer, dreaming	p. 71
Toward the brain	p. 72
Your inner thermostat	p. 74
Smell the coffee and wake up	p. 76
The face of anxiety	p. 77
Stay away from my brain	p. 89
It's not funnyùand its not a bone	p. 84
Hippocampus	p. 87
How many neurons?	p. 94
Exercise (and) your brain	p. 96
Making a meat of it	p. 99
Brain freeze	p. 139
Rapid response	p. 142
The last laugh	p. 180
Are you receiving?	p. 181
Skin, Hair, Nails, And Teeth
How fast do they grow?	p. 21
Cleft and crease	p. 44
What a big organ	p. 110
Naked bits	p. 115
What type of hair?	p. 118
Permanent fixture	p. 122
Tooth and nail	p. 126
I hate calculus	p. 132
Hair today ...	p. 151
Holding onto your teeth	p. 156
Hair color	p. 157
To baldly go	p. 164
The end of decay?	p. 170
Sun spots	p. 176
Vision and Hearing
Crystal clear	p. 18
No need for another eyelid	p. 32
Eye see	p. 34
Don't it make your blue eyes brown	p. 49
Ringing in your ears	p. 50
You'll (not) ruin your eyes!	p. 66
Turning heads	p. 71
Hammer, anvil, stirrup	p. 82
Don't push it!	p. 96
Invisible knowledge	p. 138
Bloodless tissue	p. 143
Reasons why pupils dilate ...	p. 149
The Zonule of Zinn	p. 154
Both eyes open	p. 174
Blood, Circulation, And Breathing
Hole in the heart	p. 28
Heart of the matter	p. 44
No control	p. 54
Natural born killers	p. 57
High-impact colors	p. 62
Soaking on the inside	p. 81
It's in the blood	p. 82
Bloody sayings	p. 86
Feel the beat of your heart	p. 91
Don't stress it!	p. 97
Your inner hose	p. 140
Breathless	p. 141
Your inner tennis court	p. 159
Frantic activity in your nose and throat	p. 173
Nutrition And Metabolism
The body's single currency	p. 26
Your body needs ... magnesium	p. 28
The B Listers	p. 29
Too much salt!	p. 30
Eat less, drink red wine, live longerùbut ask the doc first!	p. 37
Your body needs ... potassium	p. 40
Amino acids	p. 42
Going without	p. 42
Water you talking about?	p. 45
A rough guide to putting on weight	p. 52
Sweet sensation	p. 58
Sugar high?	p. 61
Your body needs ... calcium	p. 63
Fat to make you slim?	p. 66
What is a steroid?	p. 68
All in a day's work	p. 72
Your body needs ... sulfur	p. 73
Your body needs ... iron	p. 80
Inner fire	p. 92
Your body needs ... zinc	p. 80
Oranges and lemons
Proteins 87	p. 105
Good sources of vitamin C	p. 105
Foods to look out for	p. 114
Green, but not with envy	p. 116
Choca block	p. 127
Your body needs ...chromium	p. 129
Desperate measures	p. 132
Your body needs ...selenium	p. 147
Your body needs ... molybdenum	p. 147
The breast dishes on the menu ...	p. 163
Spinach	p. 164
Burning up inside	p. 165
Your body doesn't need ...	p. 166
Growth And Reproduction
Overweight, underweight or somewhere in between?	p. 22
Name that tube ...	p. 31
Milky words	p. 35
Not just a pretty face ...	p. 38
Not Gaesar	p. 39
Twins and triplets	p. 54
Boy or girl?	p. 93
Egg	p. 101
Sperm	p. 103
Puberty's puppet master	p. 109
Womb with a view	p. 119
Sex chromosomes	p. 121
Relaxin in pregnancy	p. 126
The role of oxytocin in a babyÆs life ...	p. 170
That girl has potential	p. 177
Y the difference?	p. 182
Vitamin K	p. 183
Come out of your shell	p. 185
Aging And Death
Very old	p. 16
Stiff	p. 20
Stop he rot	p. 48
Staring death in the face	p. 59
Skeleton of Nicolaus Copernicus	p. 112
Finger of Galileo Galilei	p. 112
skeleton of Tycho Brahe	p. 112
Death mask of Isaac Newton	p. 113
Genetics And Evolution
Out-of date body parts	p. 11
Cousin chimp	p. 27
Tightly packed information	p. 67
Skin is thicker than water	p. 73
Single-gene disorders	p. 83
Code of life	p. 96
Bladder of success	p. 120
Do you copy?	p. 120
DNA whodunnit?	p. 131
There's a gene for that	p. 146
Wristy business	p. 150
You're so vein	p. 162
Roll call	p. 178
Anatomy, Disease, And Medicine
Coconuts tried in vein	p. 10
Inflammation overload	p. 10
Choc medicine	p. 17
Making the body perfect?	p. 24-25
Aloe vera	p. 30
Facing the facts	p. 40
Dying to get involved in anatomical research?	p. 41
Wee stones	p. 41
This sucks	p. 51
A penetrating gaze	p. 55
Some well-known autoimmune disorders	p. 55
The body's organ systems	p. 57
Undercover healing	p. 64
TLAsùthree-letter acronyms	p. 67
Roots of research	p. 70
Stealing a glimpse inside the body	p. 75
The inside story	p. 77
Low fat	p. 77
Placebo reward	p. 79
Fever in the morning, fever all through the night	p. 88
Bristol Stool Scale	p. 88
Sweet nothing	p. 80
Case (dis)solved
French paradox	p. 84
All gone?	p. 93
Common childhood rashes	p. 95
In a heartbeat	p. 98
Amino harm	p. 98
Taking in the cytes	p. 99
A world inside your wound	p. 104
Let's beat it	p. 104
Low-down	p. 107
FLABsùfour-letter abbreviations	p. 111
Bloody cancer	p. 133
A list for sore eyes	p. 134
Under pressure	p. 135
Deep in the throat	p. 135
Pass it on	p. 138
The acid test	p. 140
Colorblindness	p. 139
Blind to the facts	p. 140
Galens mistakes	p. 145
Pain in the head	p. 147
Kill the pain	p. 149
Seeing red	p. 153
Out of body experience	p. 155
Organs we have pairs of...	p. 157
Shine a light	p. 167
A poke in the eye	p. 160
The Christmas factor	p. 162
Forgetfulness disease	p. 169
Worth a try	p. 172
A question of degrees	p. 177
Tasting with your lungs	p. 177
Nose job	p. 183
Studying the body	p. 183-4
What a drag	p. 184
Welcome and Unwelcome Guests
The damage worms can do	p. 21
Unwanted invaders	p. 33
Mite be no problem 46 How to deal with nits	p. 60 ,
Say cheese	p. 78
A brush with life	p. 122
Diseases caused by herpes viruses	p. 124
Mostly nonhuman	p. 133
Wart are you worried about?	p. 154
Worming its way in	p. 159
One person's waste, another's treatment	p. 170
Myths, Traditions, Art, And Misconceptions
Hairy Words	p. 11
Vitruvian Man	p. 12-13
The weight of a soul?	p. 15
Getting the measure of criminals	p. 18
Egyptian arm	p. 21
One giant leap for the human body	p. 22
A nose by any other name would smell ...	p. 22
Stalking Cat	p. 39
Nice figur(ine)	p. 50
Burning mystery	p. 52
Keep that spacesuit on!	p. 65
Humorsùthe best medicine?	p. 70
Healing god	p. 78
Bumps on the head	p. 78
Seat of the soul	p. 85
Pull out the brains	p. 85
Wax waned	p. 86
Never judge a book by its cover	p. 90
Bloodthirsty after the event	p. 106
Can a rusty nail give you tetanus?	p. 114
Forbidden fruit?	p. 115
Flaying alive, flaying alive	p. 116-117
When the feeling's gone and you can't go on	p. 125
I give you my heart	p. 129
Sting in the (old wives') tale	p. 130
Blue-blooded	p. 137
Achilles' heel	p. 141
Moles	p. 148
Bleeding outdated?	p. 150
All gummed up?	p. 152
Web of lies	p. 155
Give up when you are a head	p. 158
Grim trophy	p. 163
Shell-being	p. 171
A balanced personality?	p. 175
Starve a fever? Feed a cold?	p. 178
Amazing Feats And Facts
Fingernails	p. 14
The average number of fingers	p. 38
They might have been giants	p. 43
Hair are you from?	p. 64
Heavy, man	p. 90
Don't sell your body	p. 100
Improbable research ...	p. 101-103
Body broker	p. 103
Something missing	p. 106
Funny words	p. 107
The perils of gunpowder	p. 108
The bone seeker	p. 109
Your own personal counterweight	p. 110
Burps in Space	p. 113
Carbon mouthprint	p. 120
Best thing since sliced breat	p. 123
I don't like Mondays	p. 125
Arms up	p. 126
Double trouble	p. 127
Arm wrestling	p. 128
Death on an enormous scale	p. 129
Big babies, small babies	p. 136
Hard graft	p. 142
Uses for(e) skin	p. 143
Your eyes are streaming	p. 144
Going digital	p. 144
Wax on, wax off, hair off, skin off	p. 148
Gone tomorrow	p. 151
Celebrity body part insurance	p. 153
Seeing with your brain	p. 160
Meat-free achievements	p. 161
Nasty habits	p. 165
Big feet	p. 168
Take the pain away	p. 168
A sporting guide to the masses of the major organs in an adult ...	p. 172
Artificial stomach	p. 174
Listening in	p. 176
Wrong name?	p. 179
Giant hair ball	p. 180
Eureka!	p. 185
Index	p. 187
Credits	p. 192
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