Biology Stack Exchange
Biology Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [human-biology]

This tag is for questions about the general biological features of human beings (as opposed to the biology of non-humans).

This tag is used for questions about the general biological features of human beings as opposed to the biology of non-humans.

Human biology may be relevant to many fields of biology and appropriate complementary tags should be used.

See also:

2505 questions
49
votes
1 answer

What causes morning wood?

Sometimes men wake up with an erection in the morning. Why does this happen?
I J
  • 1,226
  • 1
  • 10
  • 15
29
votes
2 answers

What causes fingerprints to form and why is the pattern formed unique?

I've found research that suggests that the reason we develop fingerprints is because they aid us with feeling surfaces (Scheibert, et al. 2008) and not to increase friction and help with the gripping of smooth objects (Warman and Ennos 2009). One…
Edoardo Pirovano
  • 843
  • 1
  • 9
  • 9
23
votes
2 answers

Why do we like salt?

A few friends of mine told me that salt provides zero nutritional value to us, and in fact can harm our bodies. Now, these guys are medical students, and being an engineering student myself, I decided not to argue with them. The rest of this…
Hassan
  • 383
  • 1
  • 2
  • 7
21
votes
1 answer

Why doesn't water enter my body through my anus or genitals when swimming?

So when we swim, we can make water not enter through our nose and mouth, simply by holding our breath. However, the mouth and the nose aren't the only cavities. What about the anus and the genitals? They obviously can't "hold breath", so how do they…
Realdeo
  • 555
  • 2
  • 5
  • 12
20
votes
4 answers

What is the armpit hair for?

Modern human beings, especially women, cut their armpit hair. It seems to me the armpit hair is trivial/useless. Shortly speaking, what is the armpit hair for?
kiss my armpit
  • 499
  • 1
  • 4
  • 14
20
votes
3 answers

What is the healing process of mouth wounds?

When we have an external wound, blood generally tends to clot there, forming a layer of solid scab. Yesterday, while brushing my teeth, I somehow hurt my gums and it got all bloody. However, it did not clot, neither did it hurt just after the…
The-Ever-Kid
  • 1,169
  • 2
  • 8
  • 9
20
votes
3 answers

Why isn't vomit corrosive?

Vomit comes from gastric acid, right? And in gastric acid there is HCl and HCl is corrosive (strong), how come when I vomit, it doesn't destroy things that it (as the vomit) hits (such as floor, table)?
Realdeo
  • 555
  • 2
  • 5
  • 12
17
votes
1 answer

Why does yawning trigger tears?

I'm just wondering when I yawned, there are tears coming out from my eyes, which makes me look like I'm crying. So my question is how does yawning give out tears?
a.012p
  • 181
  • 5
14
votes
1 answer

Why does scar tissue change color?

I was wondering why, when you are cold, scar tissue turns bluish or purple while original skin stays the same color. The only thing I can think of, is that maybe scar tissue gets less circulation than regular skin, so when it gets cold it restricts…
johnny1bucket
  • 527
  • 2
  • 5
  • 7
13
votes
4 answers

Why do human females have permanently prominent breasts?

Humans seem to be the only animal whose females have breasts that permanently have a "full" appearance, ie a prominent amount of tissue even when not lactating, whereas other species' breasts seem to almost totally "deflate" when not longer…
Bohemian
  • 683
  • 2
  • 6
  • 13
13
votes
3 answers

What is the minimum air pressure the human body can tolerate if oxygen supply is not an issue?

Disregarding hypoxia, what is the minimum air pressure that the human body can tolerate? (i.e. at what air pressure would the blood start to boil, or skin start to burst, or whatever else might happen that would kill you but isn't related to…
user541686
  • 251
  • 1
  • 3
  • 8
12
votes
2 answers

Is there any biological reason that professional swimming is dominated by white people?

I suppose that the question should be turned around to "Why is it extremely rare to see black people competing in professional swimming?" because it is the absence of this phenotype while watching the Olympics that caused me to ask this…
ODP
  • 433
  • 3
  • 9
12
votes
1 answer

Name (and meaning of the absence) of the white semicircle at the base of the fingernail?

At the base of fingernail, there is a white semicircle (see on the first picture). But sometimes there isn't one. My questions are: what is this white semicircle on the fingernail, and what causes it? What is the explanation when there it isn't on…
blackcornail
  • 659
  • 1
  • 8
  • 15
12
votes
3 answers

Is there a consensus on whether or not race exists on a biological level?

The most recent survey I could find was from 1985 which said that 16% of biologist disagreed that "[t]here are biological races in the species Homo sapiens." I was wondering if there's been a change in this position.
Louis Waweru
  • 273
  • 1
  • 8
11
votes
1 answer

Are high sounds worse for your hearing than low sounds?

From about 80 dB it is possible to suffer loss hearing after a couple of hours. But does it make a difference what frequencies those sound waves are or is it just the volume of the sound in dB that matters? In your ear the first sounds you lose in…
Marijn
  • 2,765
  • 1
  • 20
  • 35
1
2 3
…
18 19