16 Incredible Images That Show How Your Body Works

We use it everyday. It's there when we need it, and of course when we don't. It's the most important thing in the universe to us — but can also be the most ill-treated.

It's our body. And it's freaking amazing.

From the day we're conceived until the day we die, our body is a place of absolute magnificence. Its abilities are beyond anything even C.S. Lewis could imagine, and yet we still haven't discovered all that it can do.

But for what it can, here are some incredible images to help you realize just how incredible we humans are.

1. A baby's face developing in the womb.

We start off as a glob of tissue mounds, but begin developing from the outside in. In the first four months of pregnancy, we turn from this blob into a face with nostrils, eyes, eyelids, lips, and ears.

2. Pregnancy itself is freaking amazing.

The organs in a woman's body actually move during pregnancy to make room for the baby. As they move, it can cause pregnancy symptoms that just can't be blamed on hormonal changes, such as breathing ability and, of course, bladder control. 

3. Cross section of the human body from top to bottom.

This is what the human body would look like if we sliced it into 1,878 pieces and photographed each piece! When those photos are quickly displayed one after another, it shows our bodies from tip to toes!

4. This is how you swallow.

This X-ray shows how humans swallow liquid. I will never drink tea the same again — this is craziness. But number 5 creeps me right out!

5. What are those things "floating" in your eye?

Actually, they're not floating on the surface at all! They're not creepy little alien, worm creatures that are slowly taking over your eyes. These objects are inside your eyeball, and cast shadows onto your retina, which creates that image you see.

6. Why being bi-lingual is really, really awesome.

Besides being able to spout out some romantic French pickup lines, being bilingual or multilingual has other less obvious (but way cooler) advantages. Being multilingual creates more grey matter in the brain, which helps the brain process information. So the more you know, the more you're able to learn later on! That'll keep your brain healthy and engaged for decades to come.

7. We breathe up to 10,000 liters of air a day.

That's more than 2,600 gallons per day! Lungs inhale and exhale between 15 and 25 times a minute, transporting oxygen to our cells to keep them working. Oxygen also clears carbon dioxide out of our system, which is created by all the work our body is doing. The coolest part? We do all of this without even thinking about it.

8. The ultimate battle: white blood cells attacking a parasite.

This time-lapse video shows white blood cells attacking a larva over the course of 80 minutes, with a image taken every 30 seconds. It's like Godzilla come to life! This is incredible, but number 10 is just disgusting.

9. Why can I remember great memories, but not what I ate last week?

Don't worry, you're not going senile. When experience things, we put off a pulse of electrical energy that's fired off to a network of neurons, and they land in our short-term memory and stays there for a few seconds or minutes. From there, that pulse is sent to long-term memory and finally stored in other regions of the brain. But if these neurons communicate with each other over and over, their connection becomes stronger — and is why we can recall those memories quicker than we can those little everyday moments we don't really care about.

10. This guy didn't know he was being watched...

A man at an airport was caught farting by a thermal imaging camera. This is what that looks like? I am now totally aware that I am walking through clouds of farts on the regular.

11. How our hands move.

This X-ray shows how our bones moves in our hand. Whoa.

12. So THAT'S why!

As we age, the area of our brain that controls emotion and memory loses 5 per cent of its neurons every decade. By the time we're 80, it will have lost about 20 per cent. That's why memories seem to fade over time!

13. A red blood cell cycling through our circulatory system.

Once a red blood cell is produced in our heart, it takes about 20 seconds to cycle through our entire circulatory system.

14. Thought the face was cool?

Here's what the development of a baby looks like through the approximately 40 weeks of pregnancy. It's literally turning a ball of goo into a human being. Like what the eff.

15. An actual, honest to God look at how our brain makes memories.

Remember those neurons firing back and forth? Here are those same neurons building memories in our brains. So much whoa right now.

16. We are made of so much...

Our DNA is made up of 100 billion atoms, and there are as many atoms in a double-helix of DNA than there are stars in a galaxy. This is true for every living thing on earth. Basically, we're awesome.

Main image via TEDEd

Collage images via 1. tumblr / TEDEd 2. tumblr / TEDEd