did you know?
The color of your eyes is determined by melanocytes!
You do have a brown eye color if melanocytes are genereously represented in the stroma of your iris.
If they are located only in the iris epithelia, your eye color looks blue.

did you know?
The evolution to a male being is a persistent struggle against womankind!
Males always need the so called SRY-gene (sex-determining region of Y) on their Y chromosome to make the initially gender-neutral gonads develop into testicles not ovaries.
If there happens to be a malfunction causing gene mutation on that very specific SRY-gene, a female phenotype will be developed.
GO MEN!

P.S.: first round jubilee- part number 10 of my “did you know?” series. =)

did you know?
The heart is, despite of its small size and weight, a real giant when it comes to its performance and needs:

• pump delivery-rate: ~ 15 tons blood per day
• ‘Turnover’ of ~ 6 kg ATP per day
• Efficiency factor of around 20%
• amounts to only 0,5-1% of your bodyweight – yet needs 10-20% of your general o2 consumption

did you know?
In your body there are ~5 million erythrocytes each µl blood!
Erythrocytes are the bloodcells which are specifically responsible for the O2 transport. Their diameter is around 7,5 µm, only rarely deviating.

If you do do some easy maths and know that a common adult does have around 4,5l blood, you can calculate just how many erys you got in your whole blood volume.
In case you are lazy, I did it for you already: It is the incredible ammount of 2,25*10^13 pieces!

did you know?
Stiff muscles do not correlate with hydroxypropionic acid in any way!
The statement that stiff muscles are caused by hydroxypropionic acid is proven to be an old wives’ tale.

Your muscles are sore because sarcomeres in your muscles are disrupting when getting stressed too much (compared to your actual training situation).
If you were always enjoying the massages when having stiff muscles, you will hate what I got to say next, just as I do:
Massages are no help against sore muscles!

did you know?
The reason for cystic fibrosis is caused by a mutation in your CFTR gene !

CFTR means cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator and is actually in charge of carrying Cl- Ions through the membrane of several cells of your body. The mutation influences this procedure in a negative way so the affected cells do segretate less water than usual which is leading to mucous secretion.

This week I visited the bodyworlds exhibition in Heidelberg, Germany.
You can find a great number of dead bodies there, plastinated and draped to show you as much as possible of the human body.
Actually the exhibition was worth a visit, for sure! No matter if you are actually studying medicine or are just interested in it- there are many things you didn’t know or at least see yet, for sure!
The only thing that annoyed me a bit was the ‘few’ number of exhibits there. As this varies from exhibition to exhibition, one should maybe visit bodyworlds when stationed in a bigger city like Berlin or some other capitals.

did you know?
Your kidneys do percolate around 180l primary-urine a day !

With around 500l liquid per day circulating through your kidneys, they drain around 180l primary-urine from which only 1,5l are becoming secondary-urine you finally exude.

did you know?
The overall area of your lung’s alveoli is around 140m² !

Alveoli are the smallest structures in your lungs where the inhaled oxygen diffuses into your blood. Each of them has a diameter of only 200-300 µm.

did you know?
Sleeping less than 7 hours a night greatly increases the chance of catching a cold and flu!

A research team of Carnegie Mellon University, USA, found out that sleep and the immune system are closely linked. Dr. Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at the University of Cardiff said:
“The immune system may control the sleep-wake pattern and lack of sleep or sleep disturbance may depress the immune response to infection.”

via BBC-News, thanks.