Health Matters.

1. There is enough DNA in an average
person’s body to stretch from the sun
to Pluto and back — 17 times
The human genome , the genetic code in each
human cell, contains 23 DNA molecules each
containing from 500 thousand to 2.5 million
nucleotide pairs. DNA molecules of this size are
1.7 to 8.5 cm long when uncoiled, or about 5 cm
on average. There are about 37 trillion cells in
the human body and if you’d uncoil all of the
DNA encased in each cell and put them end to
end, then these would sum to a total length
of 2×10 meters or enough for 17 Pluto
roundtrips (1.2×10 meters/Pluto roundtrip).
2. The average human body carries
ten times more bacterial cells than
human cells
It’s funny how we compulsively wash our hands,
spray our countertops and grimace when
someone sneezes near us—in fact, we do
everything we can to avoid unnecessary
encounters with the germ world. The truth of the
matter is that each and every one of us is a
walking petri dish! All the bacteria living inside
you would fill a half-gallon jug or 10 times more
bacterial cells in your body than human cells,
according to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at
the University of Idaho. Don’t worry, though.
Most of these bacteria are helpful; in fact, we
couldn’t survive without them.
For one thing, bacteria produce chemicals that
help us harness energy and nutrients from our
food. Germ-free rodents have to consume nearly
a third more calories than normal rodents to
maintain their body weight, and when the same
animals were later given a dose of bacteria, their
body fat levels spiked, even if they didn’t eat any
more than they had before. The gut bacteria is
also very important to maintaining immunity.
(image source)
3. It can take a photon 40,000 years
to travel from the core of the sun to
its surface, but only 8 minutes to
travel the rest of the way to Earth
A photon travels, on average, a particular
distance, d, before being briefly absorbed and
released by an atom, which scatters it in a new
random direction.From the core to the sun’s
surface ( 696,000 kilometers) where it can
escape into space, a photon needs to make a
huge number of drunken jumps. The calculation
is a little tricky, but the conclusion is that a
photon takes between many thousands and many
millions of years to drunkenly wander to the
surface of the Sun. In a way, the light that
reaches us today is energy produced maybe
millions of years ago. Amazing! ( image source)
4. At over 2000 kilometers long, The
Great Barrier Reef is the largest living
structure on Earth
Coral reefs consist of huge numbers of individual
coral polyps – soft-bodied, invertebrate animals
– linked by tissue. The Great Barrier Reef is an
interlinked system of about 3000 reefs and 900
coral islands, divided by narrow passages, just
beneath the surface of the Coral Sea.Spanning
more than 2000 km and covering an area of
some 350 000 sq km, it is the largest living
structure on Earth and the only one visible from
space. But this fragile coral colony is beginning
to crumble, battered by the effects of climate
change, pollution and manmade disasters.
(image source)
5. There are 8 times as many atoms
in a teaspoonful of water as there are
teaspoonfuls of water in the Atlantic
ocean
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A teaspoon of water (about 5 mL) contains
2×10 water molecules, but each water
molecule is comprised of 3 atoms: two hydrogen
and one oxygen. Moreover, if you’d laid down
end to end each water molecule from a teaspoon
full you’d end up with a length of 50 billion km
or 10 times the width of our solar system.
(image source)
6. The average person walks the
equivalent of five times around the
world in a lifetime
The average moderately active person take
aound 7,500 step/day. If you maintain that daily
average and live until 80 years of age, you’ll
have walked about 216,262,500 steps in your
lifetime. Doing the math ; the average person
with the average stride living until 80 will walk a
distance of around 110,000 miles. Which is the
equivalent of walking about 5 times around the
Earth, right on the equator.