This is a thread for interesting little scientific, technological or related facts, which don't necessarily deserve a thread of their own (although we can always split posts off into standalone threads if they develop into discussions).
Here's one to start us off...
Taken from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19357090
Here's one to start us off...
I have emboldened the interesting bit at the bottom. I never knew that."The air we breathe isn't exactly clean, and we take in many dangerous elements with every breath.
"We need a mechanism to remove all the junk we breathe in, and the way it's done is with a very sticky gel, called mucus, that catches these particles and removes them with the help of tiny cilia."
"The cilia are constantly beating, even while we sleep.
"In a co-ordinated fashion, they push mucus, containing foreign objects, out of the lungs, and we either swallow it or spit it out.
"These cilia even beat for a few hours after we die. If they stopped, we'd be flooded with mucus that provides a fertile breeding ground for bacteria."
Taken from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19357090