Scienceville
Know Your Body
You were born with more bones than you have now, and you are a little taller when you wake up than later in the day! Let's explore more surprises about your body.
Did you know?
A newborn baby has about 270 bones, but an adult has about 206. As we grow, some of the bones join together.
The smallest bone in your body is the stapes, or stirrup bone, deep inside your ear. It is only about 2 to 3 mm long!
You are slightly taller in the morning! Lying down for a long time makes you a little taller. In one study, 100 children were about 1.5 cm shorter by late afternoon than when they got out of bed.
Try this: Fingerprint Detective
Scribble hard with a pencil on paper to make a dark patch. Rub your fingertip on it, press a piece of clear sticky tape onto your fingertip, then stick the tape on white paper. Look closely: is your print a loop, a whorl or an arch? Compare prints with your family. No two are the same!
Go further: The Story of Fingerprints
Your fingerprints formed before you were born, and even identical twins have different ones. In the 1890s, in Bengal, two Indian police officers, Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose, worked with Edward Henry to create a way of sorting fingerprints into groups. This 'Henry System' was later used by police in many countries to identify people.