Did you know that over the next thirty minutes your body will generate enough heat to boil a half-gallon of water? Or that right now millions of dead skin cells are falling off your body and being replaced with new ones?We may live in the computer age but the human body is still the world’s most amazing machine. According to a 2011 article in Wired Magazine, all the personal computers in the world can process about 6.4 quintillion instructions per second combined -- that’s the number 64 followed by 17 zeros. That’s equal to the number of nerve impulses sent out by a single human brain every second – meaning it would take almost every computer in the world to process the data your brain releases each second.The human heart is equally as impressive. The amount of energy it produces in an hour of beating is the same amount of energy needed to lift a one-ton object three feet off the ground.There are some limitations to our bodies, though. Humans are the only mammals that can’t swallow and breathe at the same time. Our larynx sits lower in our throat compared with other mammals, which allows us to make the wide range of sounds needed for speech – but it also means if we try and breathe when we swallow, we’ll choke.So maybe our bodies aren’t 100% perfect. Even with 6.4 quadrillion brain impulses a second…it’s still nice to have a computer to help you out.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:23:35 +0000
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