Everyday Biology, Surprisingly Handy (Part 2)

[C] Heart | Purkinje fibers conduct electrical impulses 4 times faster than regular heart muscle. They're your heart's fiber optic cables, making sure all parts beat in sync.

[D] Sucrose | Sucrose is just table sugar, proving that chemistry class was secretly teaching you baking. Your body immediately splits it back apart because it likes to complicate things.

[A] Scurvy | Scurvy gave pirates bleeding gums and lost teeth. British sailors fixed it with limes, earning the nickname "limeys" and proving fruit prevents more than just boredom.

[B] Masseter muscle | Your jaw muscle can bite with 200 pounds of force. That's enough to crack walnut shells, though your dentist strongly advises against testing this.

[D] Biochemistry | Biochemistry explains why coffee wakes you up and why alcohol makes bad ideas seem good. It's basically the science of "why your body does that."

[A] Free Iron | Free iron in your blood is toxic, so transferrin proteins carry it like bodyguards escorting a celebrity. Too much free iron and bacteria throw a reproduction party.

[D] O- | O-negative blood is accepted by everyone but super picky about what it receives. It's the introvert of blood types at the transfusion party.

[C] Beriberi | Beriberi means "I can't, I can't" in Sinhalese, describing the weakness it causes. White rice caused epidemics until someone figured out the brown husks contained the cure.

[D] Multiple myeloma | Multiple myeloma makes plasma cells multiply like spam emails. Your immune system gets overwhelmed with useless antibodies instead of helpful ones.

[A] Pineal gland | The pineal gland is rice-grain sized and makes melatonin. Philosophers thought it housed the soul, but it just helps you feel sleepy at bedtime.

[A] Gregor Mendel | Mendel was a monk who studied pea plants and accidentally invented genetics. His peers ignored him for 35 years, proving peer review has always been slow.

[C] 110 to 160 bpm | Fetal hearts beat twice as fast as adult hearts because they're basically running a marathon while building a body. It's exhausting just thinking about it.

[D] Mycology | Mycology studies organisms that are neither plant nor animal but somehow make both pizza and penicillin possible. Fungi are nature's multitaskers.

[C] Herbert Spencer | Spencer coined the phrase, not Darwin. He applied evolution to everything including economics, proving scientists have always been bad at staying in their lane.

[D] Neck | Your thyroid wraps around your windpipe like a bow tie. It controls your metabolism, which is why thyroid problems make you feel like you're running on the wrong battery.

[B] Ear | Your inner ear contains fluid-filled canals that work like biological gyroscopes. Spin around and they keep spinning, explaining why the room continues moving.

[D] Y | The Y chromosome is basically just instructions for making male parts plus some ear hair genes. It's slowly shrinking and might disappear in 4.6 million years.

[B] Lysosome | Lysosomes are filled with enzymes that digest cellular waste. When cells die, they burst open like cellular piñatas, but the prizes digest everything.

[C] 6.5 | Milk is slightly acidic, which is why it curdles. Your stomach acid is 100 times more acidic, turning milk into cheese whether you want it or not.

[B] Dendrology | Dendrology comes from Greek for "tree science." Dendrologists can read tree rings like diaries, making them time travelers with really specific interests.

[A] Bifocal lens | Presbyopia is when your arms become too short to read. Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals because he got tired of switching glasses, proving laziness drives innovation.

[A] Albert Sabin | Sabin's oral vaccine tasted like sugar cubes and didn't need needles. He never patented it, losing billions but saving millions of children.

[B] Amphibians | Frogs breathe through their skin, which must stay moist. They're basically living humidifiers that croak, explaining why they love swamps.

[A] Glucose and Oxygen | Plants eat sunlight and burp oxygen. We breathe their waste and they breathe ours, making Earth the ultimate recycling program.

[B] Clostridium botulinum | Botulism toxin is so deadly that a sugar cube's worth could kill everyone in a city. Diluted, it removes wrinkles as Botox, proving poison is about dosage.

[B] Liver | Your liver weighs three pounds and does over 500 jobs. If it went on strike, you'd need dialysis, enzyme supplements, and a small pharmacy to replace it.

[A] Nephron | Each nephron is a tiny filtering plant processing 180 liters of blood daily. You have a million per kidney, making them nature's most successful mass production.

[B] Tricalcium phosphate | Your bones aren't just structural; they're mineral banks. When you need calcium, bones release it like an ATM that's part of your body.

[B] 120/80 | Blood pressure is measured in "millimeters of mercury" because old devices used actual mercury. Modern medicine kept the units out of tradition and confusion.

[A] Ampicillin | Ampicillin fights many bacteria types, like bringing a shotgun to a dart game. It works great but also kills helpful bacteria, causing digestive revenge.