- A brand new human organ has been classified, and it’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. Everyone, meet your mesentery. It was previously thought to be just a few fragmented structures in the digestive system.
2. There’s an entirely new type of diabetes, and most people wouldn’t know they have it. The newly classified type 3c diabetes is being misdiagnosed as type 2.
3. Lungs don’t just facilitate respiration – they also make blood. Mammalian lungs produce more than 10 million platelets (tiny blood cells) per hour, which equates to the majority of platelets circulating the body.
4. The brain literally starts eating itself when it doesn’t get enough sleep. When we sleep normally, our brains clear away the neural debris from the day’s activity. But when we’re sleep deprived this process goes into overdrive, causing the brain to clear away significant amount of neurons and synaptic connections.
5. Your appendix might not be the useless evolutionary byproduct after all. Unlike your wisdom teeth, your appendix might actually be serving an important biological function – and one that our species isn’t ready to give up just yet.
6. Neuroscientists have discovered a whole new role for the brain’s cerebellum.
It’s long been assumed that the cerebellum functions largely outside the realm of conscious awareness, coordinating basic physical activities like standing and breathing, but it could actually play a key role in shaping human behaviour.
7. Our gut bacteria are messing with us in ways we could never have imagined.
New research has revealed that neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s might actually start out in the gut, rather than the brain, and there’s mounting evidence that the human microbiome could be to blame for chronic fatigue syndrome.
With gut bacteria showing signs of controlling our appetite, changing our brain structure, and triggering brain lesions that could lead to strokes, our tiny passengers are a force to be reckoned with.