TOPIC: The body
#18: In an average meal, you eat around 150 000 km of DNA. read more
#34: Jelly containing fresh pineapple, papaya and kiwi won't set as the proteases in them break down the protein gelatin in the jelly. The proteases also digest some of the proteins in your mouth and tongue when you eat these fruits, causing tingling and stinging. read more
#55: Stem cell therapies are already in use in the form of bone marrow transplants - the first of which was performed in 1956. read more
#58: Tissues with large but variable energy demands, such as skeletal muscle, spermatozoa and the brain, store energy for instant availability as phosphocreatine. This reversibly transfers a phosphate group to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP). read more
#61: The UK's programme to vaccinate girls against HPV was launched in 2008. In its first three years, more than 65 per cent of girls born between 1 September 1990 and 31 August 1998 completed the three-dose course. read more
#67: More than 100 000 cancers - equivalent to one-third of those diagnosed in the UK each year - are caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight. read more
#73: All mammals have a wrinkled cortex, but the human cortex is much larger in area (in proportion to the overall brain) than any other animal's. read more
#75: The human brain accounts for 2 per cent of the total mass of the body, but 20 per cent of its oxygen consumption at rest. read more
#50: Radiology and pathology, which rely on visual interpretation (e.g. of X-rays), have low diagnostic error rates of about 2-5 per cent. In the higher-stress environment of A&E, the rate can reach 12 per cent. read more
#64: There are two kinds of radiographers. Diagnostic radiographers help diagnose diseases or injuries, including broken bones, in hospitals and surgeries. Therapeutic (radiotherapy) radiographers use radiation to help treat people with cancer. read more
#59: Extrapolating from current data, women will be finishing before men in the 100 m sprint at the 2156 Olympics. However, this ignores many factors that make this very unlikely, including that men and women may reach a physiological limit regarding sprint speed. read more
#56: Studies have shown that smokers have significantly reduced bone mass compared to non-smokers. This increases the likelihood of needing a hip replacement by 31 per cent in women and 40 per cent in men. read more
#49: Getting a diagnosis wrong can be harmful to a patient's health. One study found that diagnostic error is responsible for about 10 per cent of adverse events occurring in UK hospitals. read more
#45: 6'1": The average adult male height in the Netherlands, making Dutch men the world's tallest. read more
#44: 38 274 cosmetic procedures were carried out in the UK in 2010. 90 per cent of these were on women. read more
#43: The tallest man in history was 8'11" (2.72 m). The current world's shortest man is 1'11.6" (59.9 cm). read more
#42: Human eggs are made in the embryo, so the egg cell that fused with a sperm to become you was actually produced around six months before your mum was born. read more
#41: In a recent study of keyhole surgery, surgeons who played a musical instrument were significantly faster at suturing than those who did not. read more
#40: A man makes 1500 sperm per heartbeat. read more
#39: World Health Organization figures suggest 25-70 per cent of European adults are overweight (depending on the country) and 5-30 per cent are obese. read more
#38: Wimbledon's seats are 6 cm wider than the original 1922 models. read more
#37: The 4.5 kg increase in weight of the average American between 1990 and 2000 caused aircraft to burn 350 more gallons of fuel, at a cost of $275 million, per year. read more
#32: Eating soup makes you feel full for longer than eating solid food with a glass of water. Why? Water mixed with solids (e.g. soup) stays in the stomach longer than water alone. read more
#31: Grapefruit juice contains compounds that block enzymes involved in metabolizing a range of drugs, so drug levels stay higher for longer. These drugs include calcium-channel blockers used to treat high blood pressure. read more
#30: Fifteen minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day cuts obesity risk by 50 per cent. read more
#28: A 20-year-old obese man can expect to live for 13 years less than average. read more
#27: Women wake up from anaesthesia nearly twice as fast as men. read more
#23: Even allowing for size differences, women have disproportionately smaller feet than men. read more
#20: It would take 9.5 years, non-stop, to read aloud a person's genome base by base. read more
#12: Worldwide, 33.3 million people were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2009. In this year, there were an estimated 1.8m deaths and 2.6m new infections. read more
#9: The number of children under five dying each year, worldwide, fell from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010 - but that's still 14 deaths per minute. read more
#8: Around 13 per cent of all deaths worldwide were caused by cancer in 2008 - some 7.6 million people. read more
#7: Your brain accounts for just 3 per cent of your body's weight but consumes 17 per cent of your body's total energy. read more
#6: The total length of myelinated nerve fibres in the brain is between 150 000 and 180 000 km (enough to go around the Earth about four times). read more
#4: Your brain uses less power than your refrigerator light - just 12 watts. read more
#3: The adult brain contains around 100 billion neurons and even more support cells. read more
#1: Our brains form a million new connections every second of our lives. read more
