You most likely think you know your body truly well. All things considered, you’re the person who nourishes it, sustains it, looks at it in the mirror, and uses it to walk through this world. But, did you have any thought that it has the ability to process metal? Or that every time you blink you’re taking a tiny nap? Or that your pinky is your strongest finger? It’s all true! So read on, and revel in all of the amazing things that you never knew your body could do.

1. A Blink is a Micronap

You most likely felt that a blink was simply something you did to keep your eyes moist or keep dust out of them. That is an extremely important service, obviously, yet we really blink by itself—around 15– 20 times each moment. In fact, shutting our eyes quickly has been found to enable us to sharpen our attention and serves as a miniature recharge.

2. Big Eyes Cause Nearsightedness

Big eyes may be considered as beautiful by some, but they can cause nearsightedness. Also known as myopia, this condition makes objects to look foggy is caused by light not properly reaching the retina.

3. Hair Can Taste

Our nasal passages and lungs are lined with fine hairs, or cilia, that detect and sweep out impurities. How do they detect it? By sensing bitter tastes of the things passing through them—such as nicotine. When these hairs taste something bitter, they increase their rate of movement, attempting to sweep out the bad stuff.

4. Hair Knows When You Sleep

Another crazy thing that hairs can do: track your sleeping patterns. Researchers have found that our cell-rich hair follicles contain RNA from “clock genes” that express each person’s sleep-wake cycle. If you get up late or go to bed early, your hair will show it.

5. Your Hair Helps the Environment

Dirty hair can be good for the atmosphere: according to environmental engineers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, hair absorbs the air pollutant ozone. Scalp oils were found to be a major contributor to this—so if you want to do your part to help your local air quality, skip the shampoo.

6. Your Feet Contain a Quarter of Your Bones

Human feet contain 52 bones—26 for each foot. That’s nearly one-fourth of all the bones in your whole body. Each also contains 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

7. Stomach Acid Dissolves Razor Blades

You probably shouldn’t be swallowing these things, but you might be surprised to learn that your stomach could do some serious damage on razor blades if you did. Researchers tested the effects of gastric juice on metal objects and found that over 24 hours, the stomach acid reduced razor blades to 63 percent of their original weight.

8. Sneezes Can Travel Up to 20 Feet

You may think you’re safe when the guy all the way across the subway car sneezes, but you may be in the line of fire and not even know it. A video study conducted by researchers at MIT found that sneezes travel much farther than previously believed—as far as 20 feet.

9. Earwax is Good for You

Not to eat! But that annoying stuff you’re using Q-tips to remove serves the important purpose of lubricating, cleaning, and protecting your ears from infection. It’s as much as 50 percent fat, coating the ear and catching dust and debris—keeping your ears healthy, even if it looks gross.

10. You Lose Almost One-Third of Your Bones as You Age

You are born with about 300 bones, but as you grow, some of these fuse together as cartilage ossifies, eventually giving you 206 bones by the time your growing has stopped and you have reached young adulthood.

11. You Can’t Tickle Yourself

The reason for this is due to your cerebellum—the area in the back of your brain that monitors movement—which predicts the sensation you will feel when you attempt to tickle yourself, countering the response that the tickle would otherwise elicit in other parts of your brain.

12. Our Nails Grow Faster Than They Used to

If you feel like you’re having to trim your nails more than you use to, you might not be wrong. A study by the University of North Carolina comparing the growth of finger- and toenails to two previous studies from 70 and 50 years earlier, found that growth had increased by almost a quarter over the decades.

13. Our Taste Buds Dull as We Age

Wine may taste better as it ages, but as we age, it’s harder for us to appreciate it. Just as hearing and vision tend to deplete as the years go by, our sense of taste does the same. As you get older, your taste buds regenerate more slowly after injury or if you take certain medications. And bad news for the ladies: Women generally experience a decrease in their taste sensitivity beginning in their 50s, while men don’t experience that until their 60s.

14. We Have Unique Tongue Prints

Just as your fingerprint is uniquely you, so too is your tongue print. Biometric scans can be done to compare the individual shape (long or short, wide or narrow) and texture (ridges, wrinkles, and marks), with specific details tracked and mapped by a “tongue image-acquiring device.”

15. Humans Are the Only Animals That Weep

While many animals produce tears as lubricants for their eyes, humans are the only ones who cry as an emotional response.

16. Your Rear is Your Largest Muscle

While there is some debate about which of your muscles is the strongest, your gluteus maximus happens to be your largest. These muscles, which help keep your body upright and move your hips and thighs have to work against gravity when you’re walking uphill or up stairs—and provide comfortable padding when you sit.

17. Half Your Hand Strength is in Your Pinkie

The pinkie seems unassuming, but it’s crucial for your hand strength—helping the thumb to pinch and giving more power to the ring, middle, and index fingers.

18. Your Intestine is Four Times as Long as You Are

A small intestine is about 18 to 23 feet long, meaning if you uncoiled it, it would stretch to almost four times the length of your own body.

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