When you know a particular topic really well, you might say you know it like the back of your hand. But how well do you really know that hand? Or the rest of your body, for that matter
Here are eight inaccurate claims about the human body, debunked by real science.

Myth 1: Your fingerprints are completely unique

"It's impossible to prove that no two are the same," Mike Silverman, a forensic science regulator in the United Kingdom, told The Telegraph. "It's improbable, but so is winning the lottery, and people do that every week." There can be serious consequences if most people believe that fingerprint analysis is infallible.

Myth 2: Rolling your tongue is a genetic trait

Just 12 years after geneticist Alfred Sturtevant published a paper claiming that genetics determined your ability to roll your tongue,geneticist Philip Matlock disproved this finding with a study of his own . When he compared 33 sets of identical twins, he found that seven of those pairs contained one twin that could roll his or her tongue but the other couldn't.
Since the genes of identical twins are the same, genes clearly weren't the deciding factor for tongue rolling. Still, the misconception persists 65 years after Matlock published his debunking study.

Myth 3: You have five senses

Children often learn that they have five senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. That's a "fact" that originated in a work by the Greek philosopher Aristotle , written around 350 B.C.
However, you actually have more than five senses. Way more. In fact, scientists aren't even sure just how many more - estimates range from 22 to 33. Some of those other senses include equilibrioception (sense of balance), thermoception (sense of temperature), nociception (sense of pain), and kinaesthesia (sense of movement).

Myth 4: Fingernails and hair continue to grow after death

Our bodies do lots of creepy things after we die , but they don't keep growing our fingernails and hair.
While our nails and hair don't continue to grow after we breathe our final breath, our skin does "shrink" as it becomes dehydrated. As the skin retracts, our nails and hair become more exposed, and, thus, they may appear to grow.

Myth 5: You should never wake a sleepwalker

Mark Pressman, a psychologist and sleep specialist at Lankenau Hospital in Pennsylvania,
told Live Science the belief that it's dangerous to wake a sleepwalker began in ancient times when people used to think your soul left your body while you slept,therefore, would doom the sleeper to a soulless existence.
While Pressman said waking a sleepwalker won't harm them, it might not be easy to do. Letting a sleepwalker's journey continue uninterrupted is clearly not an option since it could have devastating consequences - sleepwalkers have been known to injure themselves or even die in their zombie-like state.

Myth 6: Swallowed chewing gum takes seven years to digest

If you believe the legend, gum you swallowed years ago is still in your body; your digestive tract is still working on the chewy mass. While it's impossible to pinpoint the origin of that myth, debunking it is fairly easy.As Rodger Liddle, a gastroenterologist at the Duke University School of Medicine, told
Scientific American, the human body is capable of passing objects up to roughly the size of a quarter, so a single piece of gum should pose no problem.

Myth 7: Most of your body heat escapes through your head

This misconception isn't nearly as old as some of the others, and it is believed to have (somewhat) scientific origins.
As Vreeman and Carroll(health service researchers)told The Guardian,No one body part has a greater impact than any other when it comes to retaining heat.
Because the head accounts for about 7 percent of the body's surface area, it doesn't seem much more important than any other part of the body for retaining heat.

Myth 8: Some people are double-jointed

Chances are you've watched someone pull her thumb back to meet her forearm or bend his leg forward at the knee. Maybe you can do these things yourself. Either way, you know most people can't, which perpetuates the myth that people can be double-jointed.
Ultimately, this misconception comes down to a matter of language. No one is born with extra joints, but some are born with joints that are extra flexible. This condition is called hypermobility or joint laxity, and it affects an estimated 10 to 25 percent of the population .
Hypermobility is typically caused by either abnormally shaped bones or loose ligaments.

source : sciencealert.com

Educative thanks for the information

Very educative

Quite an informative piece

Very informative thanks, permission to copy and share

Good, but I believe no two people have the same fingerprint

cosmas0p:
Very informative thanks, permission to copy and share

no problem sir

Great information

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Great info!!! God done dey China while science still dey board flight to connect to Ghana. Kontunu o.

Insightful

Very educative....you won't see them moving this to the front page now but let it be the breast of one farm tool now even without comment you will find it on FP..

Issorite....ayaf hear.



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中华人民共

Ayobami7:
中华人民共

True. I thought it was a nice way to start the day too.

Number 8 for those flexible people we see on shows

Cool, science keep bursting those lies

Chewing gum, seven yrs to digest! Is lie mohammed ur father?

Highly educative.