Dem Bones, Dem Bones

Captain Bones, to the rescue!

As Halloween approaches it seems appropriate that I stumbled on some interesting information about our skeletal system.  Although it's fairly common knowledge that babies are born with about 300 bones which eventually fuse together by adulthood to a measly 206, did you know that bones are living organs that are constantly rebuilding themselves?  That means that, like tastebuds, you have a "new" skeleton every seven years.  (It's not exactly a new skeleton, because the bone slowly rebuilds itself over the course of seven years, so although part of your skeleton will be hours fresh, the rest of it will be up to seven years old at any given time.)

Another interesting fact is that bone is four times as strong as concrete.  A square inch of bone can support up to 19,000 lbs, which is about the weight of a garbage truck (or about 3 elephants).   

So there you have it - bones are alive and stronger than steel.  Superman, you may be replaced soon.

To find out more check out this article all about bones and this article about bone strength.