About 8% of your DNA comes from ancient viruses

Anecdota
About 8% of your DNA comes from ancient viruses
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🫀Human body

About 8% of your DNA comes from ancient viruses

Over evolutionary time, retroviruses infected the reproductive cells of our ancestors and inserted their genes into their DNA, which was then passed down through the generations. These viral fossils make up about 8% of our genome. Some were repurposed: a gene of viral origin, syncytin, is essential for forming the placenta.

Nature
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🫀Human body

Your kidneys filter about 180 liters every day

Every day, your kidneys filter around 180 liters of blood plasma, about a bathtub's worth. Yet you only have about 3 liters of plasma, so it passes through your kidneys some sixty times a day. Over 99% of the filtered water is reabsorbed, leaving just one to two liters of urine.

NIDDK (NIH)
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🫀Human body

Your body has more atoms than the observable universe has stars

A 70 kg adult is made of about 7 × 10²⁷ atoms, or seven billion billion billion. The observable universe is thought to hold on the order of 10²² to 10²⁴ stars. Even with the high estimate, you contain thousands of times more atoms than there are stars in the entire visible cosmos.

European Space Agency (ESA)