Your fingerprints can predict some health issues. Looking at the sun can make you sneeze. You grow a new skeleton every ten years. Science hasn’t uncovered every mystery, but what it has discovered will blow your mind.
Science Knows Why ...
1. You get goose bumps. When you feel a chill or see something scary, your body releases a surge of adrenaline. The point is to make your body hair stand up—which helped our animal ancestors stay warm and also made them look larger in the face of predators. Getting those individual hairs to stand at attention requires the teeny skin muscles at the base of each follicle to contract, making your skin look vaguely like a goose’s postplucking—hence, goose bumps.
2. You grow wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth are actually a third set of molars. They allowed our forebearers to munch on rough food such as roots, nuts, and meat, especially when other teeth fell out (alas, our ancestors had poor oral hygiene). About 35 percent of people never develop wisdom teeth, partly because of an evolutionary shift that means the human jaw is often too small for them. The rest of us start developing them by age ten, though they don’t fully emerge until young adulthood, which is when we (allegedly) acquire full-grown wisdom.
3. Your fingers and toes wrinkle in water. When you’re in the bath, water seeping into your skin makes the upper layers swell. That causes the blood vessels below to constrict, which in turn causes some of the upper layers of skin to collapse. The irregular pattern of swelling and falling skin is what we see as wrinkles on our fingertips and toes.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2019-Ausgabe von Reader's Digest US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2019-Ausgabe von Reader's Digest US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Election Day Memories - Stories about voting by the people, for the people
A Convincing Argument When my boyfriend and I were finally old enough to vote in our first presidential election, we spent months debating with one another about our chosen candidates. We were quite persuasive, as we discovered when we got home from the polls and learned that we'd both voted for the other's initial choice.―SHERRY FOX Appleton, WI
A New Way to Monitor Blood Sugar
Who can benefit from this wearable technology
A Flag for Dad
An old sailor made a last wish. His son was determined to see that it came true.
Sisterhood to Last a Lifetime
These college pals teach a master class in how to maintain a friendship for 50-plus years
...TO DIE ON A HOCKEY RINK
ONE MINUTE I WAS PLAYING IN MY BEER LEAGUE, THE NEXT I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
Yes, There's a Museum for That!
These collections are wacky, wonderful and worth a visit
Town Meeting Is Called!
Once a year, the people of Elmore, Vermont, gather to practice a cherished right: democracy
Just Tight
Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, a desperate driver wonders, \"Will anyone find me?\"
WHY OUR BODIES DON'T DIG DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
Twice a year, when we spring ahead and fall back, we're more prone to sleepiness, depression and accidents
MONEYSAVING DO'S AND DON'TS
The run-up to the holidays doesn't have to bah-humbug your budget. A shopping expert shares strategies for saving big now and all year round.