# Your body, explained.

Hearts and neurons, hospitals and medicines, hearing and sight. Each work starts from one question about the body and follows it through the data to the end.

## Start here

- [What Happens If You Don't Sleep for 24 Hours?](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/what-happens-if-you-dont-sleep-for-24-hours/) — After one night without sleep, the brain doesn't switch off — but attention becomes unstable. Follow hour by hour what we know and what we don't: adenosine, reaction time, the alcohol comparison and the glymphatic debate.

## Masterpieces

Six works chosen for visual power, depth and finish: maps, atlases and stories showing everything this page can do.

- [What Romanians die of](https://mariuscomper.uk/de-ce-mor-romanii/en/) — A canvas of a thousand dots, one for every 242 deaths, that rearranges itself when you switch from counting people to counting years lost. Four views, a ranking of causes in two orders, and the distance from Europe broken down.
- [Atlas of Medical Deserts](https://mariuscomper.uk/deserturi-medicale/en/) — In Arbore, a commune of 8,173 people in Suceava, the last doctor left in 2019 and was never replaced. Look up your locality and see what medical services it has, today and twenty years ago.
- [When distance to the hospital starts to matter](https://mariuscomper.uk/aproape-de-spital/en/) — In Petrila, a Hunedoara town with its own hospital, adjusted mortality is 54% above expectations — the highest in the country. Find your locality and see how close you really are to a functioning hospital.
- [A Romanian doctor timed a protein's journey through the cell and won a Nobel Prize](https://mariuscomper.uk/george-palade/en/) — In 1953 George Palade described the grains on the cell's membranes, the ribosomes, and with Lucien Caro and James Jamieson he measured how many minutes new proteins take from the ribosome to the granules. The name ribosome was proposed at a 1958 meeting, and the year he left for America depends on the source. The story, in nine chapters, with games.
- [What Paulescu discovered before the Toronto team](https://mariuscomper.uk/nicolae-paulescu-insulina/en/) — Paulescu published the animal evidence in 1921; Toronto achieved effective clinical treatment in January 1922. The day-by-day record, documented.
- [All the DNA in you would reach the Sun and back. How many times?](https://mariuscomper.uk/cat-adn-ai-in-tine/en/) — About 21 times: 6.2 billion kilometres of DNA in 3 trillion nucleated cells. Guess first, then redo the sum with your own numbers and learn why the 600-trips myth no longer stands.

## Selected

- [The Falling Ruler: Can you catch it in mid-air?](https://mariuscomper.uk/caderea-riglei/en/) — Five drops test how fast the brain converts visual motion into mechanical grip. Each catch leaves a stamped mark on the ruler's body.
- [The Blind Spot in the Middle of Your Vision](https://mariuscomper.uk/punctul-orb/en/) — A fist held at arm's length covers ten degrees of sky — the rule astronomers have used for centuries. The same ruler, turned on your own eye, finds a real gap with no photoreceptors: 6.28 degrees on average, over twelve times wider than the full moon.
- [What You Can No Longer Hear](https://auzi.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Hearing at very high frequencies weakens first, long before speech becomes difficult to follow.
- [Two Hands, One Rhythm](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-maini/en/) — At 180°, cross-finger pairs alternate; as tempo rises, the pattern can fall abruptly into 0° symmetry. A test on your own hands reveals your personal threshold.
- [The Forbidden Left Hand: left-handedness, measured with real data](https://mariuscomper.uk/mana-stanga-interzisa/en/) — Left-handedness looked like it tripled over the twentieth century. A survey of over a million Americans and British film footage from 1900–1906 independently place the historical low around 1900; school pressure may explain part of the later recovery, but the data do not establish a single cause.
- [The Two-Degree Point](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-grade/en/) — Out of 180 degrees of human vision, only a tiny two-degree window sees the world in full sharpness and color. The brain reconstructs the rest through four saccades per second.

## Themes

Each shelf shows the theme's four finest works, hand-picked. Open any shelf to see the full list in the library.

### The body as a machine

Oxygen, blood, neurons and reflexes: how you work, in numbers.

- [A Romanian doctor timed a protein's journey through the cell and won a Nobel Prize](https://mariuscomper.uk/george-palade/en/) — In 1953 George Palade described the grains on the cell's membranes, the ribosomes, and with Lucien Caro and James Jamieson he measured how many minutes new proteins take from the ribosome to the granules. The name ribosome was proposed at a 1958 meeting, and the year he left for America depends on the source. The story, in nine chapters, with games.
- [All the DNA in you would reach the Sun and back. How many times?](https://mariuscomper.uk/cat-adn-ai-in-tine/en/) — About 21 times: 6.2 billion kilometres of DNA in 3 trillion nucleated cells. Guess first, then redo the sum with your own numbers and learn why the 600-trips myth no longer stands.
- [Sixty-Six Times: Oxygen Held by Haemoglobin](https://mariuscomper.uk/saizeci-si-sase-de-ori/en/) — Haemoglobin's binding capacity is about 66 times the dissolved fraction at 100 mmHg. Without haemoglobin, about 82 L/min would be only the theoretical minimum scale of flow required.
- [Twenty-Five Percent in Cold Water: The Mammalian Dive Reflex and the Vagal Brake on the Human Heart](https://mariuscomper.uk/inima-in-apa-rece/en/) — Cold on the body triggers tachycardia, but on the face it fires the heart's vagal brake (−25% bpm, −80% limb flow). A biophysical explainer with a hemodynamic simulator and an on-body test.

[See all 62](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=models)

### Medical investigations

Medicines, hospitals and checked official figures.

- [Magnesium citrate vs. malate vs. glycinate: which one actually absorbs better](https://mariuscomper.uk/magneziu/en/) — Ten forms of magnesium, one named study behind each claim: who paid for it, how many people it studied, what it actually measured. For bisglycinate, malate, and taurate, this research found no independent human trial in healthy adults of comparable size to the ones behind citrate.
- [Diseases treated once, not every day](https://mariuscomper.uk/boli-tratate-o-singura-data/en/) — How CAR-T cell engineering went from a last-resort leukemia treatment to early evidence that some cancers and autoimmune diseases might be reset rather than managed for life.
- [How full is a hospital?](https://mariuscomper.uk/anul-spitalului/en/) — The same patient-days. A denominator of 290 or 365 days. Different percentages.
- [Avoidable death](https://moartea-evitabila.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Romania: 199.7. EU average: 86.8. The same measure and year, a gap of 112.9 points.

[See all 10](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=investigations)

### Guides

What to actually do: menopause, blood, boxes and treatment maps.

- [The complete guide to perimenopause and menopause](https://tranzitia.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — A final menstrual period gets its name only 12 months later. Symptoms and care can begin much earlier.
- [Blood Doesn't Choose](https://mariuscomper.uk/sange/en/) — You do not choose your blood type, but it determines who you can donate to and receive from. Pick a type to see its compatibility and frequency in Romania and twenty other countries.
- [A Hundred and Five Names for One Ibuprofen](https://mariuscomper.uk/numele-de-pe-cutie/en/) — What the box says, what sits underneath, and what each name costs.
- [ADHD Treatment Map](https://adhd-map.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Treatment, evidence, costs and access in the US, UK, EU and Romania, in a bilingual documentary.

[See all 7](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=guides)

### Test yourself

Reflexes, sight, hearing and rhythm, measured with real data.

- [The Falling Ruler: Can you catch it in mid-air?](https://mariuscomper.uk/caderea-riglei/en/) — Five drops test how fast the brain converts visual motion into mechanical grip. Each catch leaves a stamped mark on the ruler's body.
- [The Blind Spot in the Middle of Your Vision](https://mariuscomper.uk/punctul-orb/en/) — A fist held at arm's length covers ten degrees of sky — the rule astronomers have used for centuries. The same ruler, turned on your own eye, finds a real gap with no photoreceptors: 6.28 degrees on average, over twelve times wider than the full moon.
- [What You Can No Longer Hear](https://auzi.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Hearing at very high frequencies weakens first, long before speech becomes difficult to follow.
- [The Two-Degree Point](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-grade/en/) — Out of 180 degrees of human vision, only a tiny two-degree window sees the world in full sharpness and color. The brain reconstructs the rest through four saccades per second.

[See all 6](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=games)

### Atlases

Health on a map: hospitals, medical deserts and treatments.

- [Atlas of Medical Deserts](https://mariuscomper.uk/deserturi-medicale/en/) — In Arbore, a commune of 8,173 people in Suceava, the last doctor left in 2019 and was never replaced. Look up your locality and see what medical services it has, today and twenty years ago.
- [When distance to the hospital starts to matter](https://mariuscomper.uk/aproape-de-spital/en/) — In Petrila, a Hunedoara town with its own hospital, adjusted mortality is 54% above expectations — the highest in the country. Find your locality and see how close you really are to a functioning hospital.
- [Retatrutide: what changes in the body](https://mariuscomper.uk/retatrutide/en/) — One molecule, three receptors. What studies show about the body, and what remains unproven.
- [The Clock of Birth](https://mariuscomper.uk/ora-nasterii/en/) — Human biology naturally schedules birth between 03:00 and 06:00 AM. Modern medicine concentrated deliveries at 09:00 AM, and Sunday births drop by 35%. Explore the 24-hour birth clock.

[See all 5](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=atlases)

## Approaches

The numbers show how many health works each approach holds.

- [Simulations & models (62)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=models)
- [Articles & explanations (19)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=articles)
- [Investigations & audits (10)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=investigations)
- [Guides & tools (7)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=guides)
- [Games & tests (6)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=games)
- [Maps & data atlases (5)](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/projects/?subject=health&format=atlases)

## All 109 works, newest first.

- [A Romanian doctor timed a protein's journey through the cell and won a Nobel Prize](https://mariuscomper.uk/george-palade/en/) — In 1953 George Palade described the grains on the cell's membranes, the ribosomes, and with Lucien Caro and James Jamieson he measured how many minutes new proteins take from the ribosome to the granules. The name ribosome was proposed at a 1958 meeting, and the year he left for America depends on the source. The story, in nine chapters, with games.
- [All the DNA in you would reach the Sun and back. How many times?](https://mariuscomper.uk/cat-adn-ai-in-tine/en/) — About 21 times: 6.2 billion kilometres of DNA in 3 trillion nucleated cells. Guess first, then redo the sum with your own numbers and learn why the 600-trips myth no longer stands.
- [The black snow of Copșa Mică](https://mariuscomper.uk/copsa-mica/en/) — Two works made Copșa Mică Europe's most polluted town: soot, lead in air, soil and children's blood. The figures, from the studies, plus the plume map and the lab bench.
- [A blue whale’s heart can beat twice a minute](https://mariuscomper.uk/inima-balenei/en/) — The heart preserved in Toronto was weighed at 175 kg and is about a metre across, far less than the car it is said to match. Stand beside it, put your hand in its aorta and hear it beat, from 2 a minute in a dive to 37 at the surface.
- [What Paulescu discovered before the Toronto team](https://mariuscomper.uk/nicolae-paulescu-insulina/en/) — Paulescu published the animal evidence in 1921; Toronto achieved effective clinical treatment in January 1922. The day-by-day record, documented.
- [Stay-Awake Brain: 24-hour timeline, BAC comparison cards, PVT, caffeine calculator](https://mariuscomper.uk/stay-awake-brain/) — Sleep-deprivation research as an interactive 24-hour timeline: the wake-hours slider, BAC comparison cards, a PVT reaction-time distribution, a caffeine calculator — the science of “17–19 hours ≈ the drink-driving line” and its limits.
- [Thermal baths in Romania: Felix, Sovata, Herculane, Covasna, Tușnad — prices, verdict](https://mariuscomper.uk/spa-romania/en/) — 5 spa resorts compared: water type, entry price, treatment base and measured access from Oradea, Cluj, Brașov, Bucharest. Official tariffs.
- [What Happens If You Don't Sleep for 24 Hours?](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/what-happens-if-you-dont-sleep-for-24-hours/) — After one night without sleep, the brain doesn't switch off — but attention becomes unstable. Follow hour by hour what we know and what we don't: adenosine, reaction time, the alcohol comparison and the glymphatic debate.
- [Blood Pressure Numbers Explained: What 120/80 Really Means](https://mariuscomper.uk/ce-inseamna-numerele-tensiunii-arteriale/en/) — Enter 138/84 and see what the cuff is measuring: the peak and trough of one arterial pressure wave, pulse pressure, why ESC 2024 and AHA/ACC 2025 disagree, and how to measure at home.
- [Tens of Picoamperes in the Dark](https://mariuscomper.uk/patruzeci-de-picoamperi/en/) — In darkness, rod ion channels remain open; a 20 pA illustrative model shows why light can reduce energy consumption by more than 75% in mammalian rods.
- [Magnesium citrate vs. malate vs. glycinate: which one actually absorbs better](https://mariuscomper.uk/magneziu/en/) — Ten forms of magnesium, one named study behind each claim: who paid for it, how many people it studied, what it actually measured. For bisglycinate, malate, and taurate, this research found no independent human trial in healthy adults of comparable size to the ones behind citrate.
- [Diseases treated once, not every day](https://mariuscomper.uk/boli-tratate-o-singura-data/en/) — How CAR-T cell engineering went from a last-resort leukemia treatment to early evidence that some cancers and autoimmune diseases might be reset rather than managed for life.
- [The Clock Inside Your Inner Ear](https://mariuscomper.uk/douazeci-de-secunde/en/) — Spin in a chair and stop dead: you feel a rotation that isn't there. Keep turning instead, and the sensation disappears entirely — an interactive physical model of the inner ear shows why, and how a pilot ends up in a graveyard spiral believing they're flying straight.
- [One Volt per Centimetre: The Skin's Epithelial Battery and the Electric Field That Heals Wounds](https://mariuscomper.uk/un-volt-pe-centimetru/en/) — Skin maintains a 20–50 mV potential; a wound collapses local resistance and creates a 100–200 V/m field that mechanically steers keratinocytes to the cut long before chemical gradients can diffuse.
- [The Blind Spot in the Middle of Your Vision](https://mariuscomper.uk/punctul-orb/en/) — A fist held at arm's length covers ten degrees of sky — the rule astronomers have used for centuries. The same ruler, turned on your own eye, finds a real gap with no photoreceptors: 6.28 degrees on average, over twelve times wider than the full moon.
- [Why You're Taller in the Morning Than at Night](https://mariuscomper.uk/nouasprezece-milimetri/en/) — In the controlled study, the peak was measured at 07:30, the trough at 00:00, and 80% of the mean 19.3 mm variation occurred within the first 3 hours after getting up.
- [Why brain freeze hurts your forehead](https://mariuscomper.uk/de-ce-doare-in-frunte/en/) — Eating fast roughly doubles the risk of brain freeze (27.4% vs 12.5%, RR 2.2). A Doppler study shows the pain arrives with a surge in cerebral artery blood flow, misrouted to the forehead through trigeminal convergence.
- [Why Menopause Shifted Thirteen Times More Than Puberty](https://mariuscomper.uk/treisprezece-ori-mai-mult/en/) — Puberty barely moved across twenty-five years of Norwegian generations. Menopause moved thirteen times more — and almost nobody talks about that.
- [When distance to the hospital starts to matter](https://mariuscomper.uk/aproape-de-spital/en/) — In Petrila, a Hunedoara town with its own hospital, adjusted mortality is 54% above expectations — the highest in the country. Find your locality and see how close you really are to a functioning hospital.
- [The Forbidden Left Hand: left-handedness, measured with real data](https://mariuscomper.uk/mana-stanga-interzisa/en/) — Left-handedness looked like it tripled over the twentieth century. A survey of over a million Americans and British film footage from 1900–1906 independently place the historical low around 1900; school pressure may explain part of the later recovery, but the data do not establish a single cause.
- [Atlas of Medical Deserts](https://mariuscomper.uk/deserturi-medicale/en/) — In Arbore, a commune of 8,173 people in Suceava, the last doctor left in 2019 and was never replaced. Look up your locality and see what medical services it has, today and twenty years ago.
- [The vessel that was supposed to disappear](https://mariuscomper.uk/vasul-care-trebuia-sa-dispara/en/) — An artery in the forearm is supposed to regress before birth. In a cadaveric study, it persisted in 43% of limbs, and in 15% it could become, via the carpal tunnel, the sole blood supply of a finger.
- [What Romanians die of](https://mariuscomper.uk/de-ce-mor-romanii/en/) — A canvas of a thousand dots, one for every 242 deaths, that rearranges itself when you switch from counting people to counting years lost. Four views, a ranking of causes in two orders, and the distance from Europe broken down.
- [The Two Clocks Inside the Menstrual Cycle](https://mariuscomper.uk/treisprezece-la-suta/en/) — The part after ovulation varies by just 4.9 days across the study's five groups; the part before it varies by 16.4 days.
- [The air machines of the Carpathians: when architecture was the only prescription](https://mariuscomper.uk/altitudinea-care-vindeca/en/) — In the 1930s, when tuberculosis had no chemical cure, Romania erected a network of machine-like buildings across the Carpathian Mountains and deep underground. From −240 metres underground to +1,010 metres on the ridge, five monumental structures rendered obsolete by a single molecule.
- [Retatrutide: what changes in the body](https://mariuscomper.uk/retatrutide/en/) — One molecule, three receptors. What studies show about the body, and what remains unproven.
- [Zero symptoms in common? It depends what you count.](https://mariuscomper.uk/zero-simptome-comune/en/) — The same diagnosis can encompass very different experiences. Compare manifestations and shared criteria, check the combinations and explore the limits of a feedback model.
- [How full is a hospital?](https://mariuscomper.uk/anul-spitalului/en/) — The same patient-days. A denominator of 290 or 365 days. Different percentages.
- [The Test Said No](https://mariuscomper.uk/testul-a-spus-nu/en/) — The tally through 1 September: 6,250 confirmed cases and 3,039 deaths; WHO’s 1 September guidance recommends Ervebo only within research protocols for Bundibugyo.
- [The Falling Ruler: Can you catch it in mid-air?](https://mariuscomper.uk/caderea-riglei/en/) — Five drops test how fast the brain converts visual motion into mechanical grip. Each catch leaves a stamped mark on the ruler's body.
- [Sixty-Six Times: Oxygen Held by Haemoglobin](https://mariuscomper.uk/saizeci-si-sase-de-ori/en/) — Haemoglobin's binding capacity is about 66 times the dissolved fraction at 100 mmHg. Without haemoglobin, about 82 L/min would be only the theoretical minimum scale of flow required.
- [Ninety Millimetres of Mercury: The Calf's Second Heart and the Pressure Drop in the Ankle](https://mariuscomper.uk/nouazeci-de-milimetri/en/) — When you stand motionless, the column of blood raises ankle pressure to 90 millimetres of mercury. Six to seven steps bring it down towards approximately 25 millimetres, while sustained walking maintains a 20–25 millimetre plateau.
- [Twenty-Five Percent in Cold Water: The Mammalian Dive Reflex and the Vagal Brake on the Human Heart](https://mariuscomper.uk/inima-in-apa-rece/en/) — Cold on the body triggers tachycardia, but on the face it fires the heart's vagal brake (−25% bpm, −80% limb flow). A biophysical explainer with a hemodynamic simulator and an on-body test.
- [The Yawn's Thermal Window](https://mariuscomper.uk/fereastra-cascatului/en/) — The oxygen explanation was tested directly in 1987 and falsified. Contagious yawning follows a narrow temperature window, measured independently in Tucson and Vienna.
- [Three Hundred Thousand to One: The Two-Hundred-Micrometre Barrier That Stops the Stomach From Digesting Itself](https://mariuscomper.uk/trei-sute-de-mii-la-unu/en/) — A steep 300,000:1 hydronium ion gradient is sustained across the thickness of two sheets of paper via continuous chemical titration, while cellular restitution can begin within minutes and rapidly restore superficial continuity in some models; complete recovery ranges from tens of minutes to hours depending on the injury and model.
- [Three Centimeters of Border](https://mariuscomper.uk/trei-centimetri-de-granita/en/) — A political border, measured in centimeters of height.
- [Twenty Minutes for a Bubble: The Biophysics of Knuckle Cracking and the Cavitation Refractory Period](https://mariuscomper.uk/douazeci-de-minute/en/) — Under >60 N tensile force, synovial pressure falls to −2.5 bar and the cavity appears in <310 ms. MRI supports cavity formation, while the 2018 model leaves a role for partial collapse open; the ~20-minute clock is illustrative.
- [Your Ear Has Its Own Amplifier](https://mariuscomper.uk/patruzeci-de-decibeli/en/) — The quantitative biophysics of the active cochlear amplifier: how 12,000 outer hair cells leverage a 150 mV transmembrane gradient to oscillate nanomechanically at over 20,000 Hz, generating otoacoustic emissions and the Tartini phantom tone (2f1 - f2).
- [Why Do You Hiccup?](https://mariuscomper.uk/de-ce-sugiti/en/) — A sudden inspiratory diaphragm contraction is followed, in the classic description, by glottic closure. The approximately 35-millisecond interval turns a breathing movement into a “hic”.
- [One Second Without Air](https://mariuscomper.uk/o-secunda-fara-aer/en/) — Swallowing starts a short respiratory pause linked to neural inhibition and coordinated laryngeal closure. The measured pause lasted 0.75 ± 0.14 seconds on average.
- [Three Micrometres of Water Between Air and Sight](https://mariuscomper.uk/trei-micrometri/en/) — On the cornea, the tear film measures about 3.3 micrometres in its muco-aqueous region, while the surface lipid layer is only 52.7 nanometres thick. After a blink, surface flow redistributes it faster than evaporation can thin it during the first seconds.
- [The Body Stands Like an Inverted Pendulum](https://mariuscomper.uk/pendulul-din-glezna/en/) — In quiet standing, the ankle keeps correcting an unstable pendulum. In a no-correction model, a 0.5° sway grows to 5° in 0.72 seconds at the default height of 1.75 m.
- [Fifty Grams in the Skull](https://mariuscomper.uk/cincizeci-de-grame/en/) — Submerged in 140 millilitres of fluid, the brain sheds 97% of its effective weight through buoyant force, while deep sleep unleashes a hydraulic tide that purges cellular waste.
- [One Hundred Milliseconds of Too Much Precision](https://mariuscomper.uk/o-suta-de-milisecunde/en/) — Touch you produce yourself is less surprising. One experiment shifted attenuation after repeated 100-millisecond delays, while a replication and an fMRI study show that temporal selectivity depends on the protocol.
- [Walking is controlled falling](https://mariuscomper.uk/mersul-ca-un-pendul/en/) — In walking, the body passes over the stance foot like an inverted pendulum and recovers about 65% of external mechanical energy. Measure your walk and see where its Froude number lands.
- [Pupil squared](https://mariuscomper.uk/pupila-la-patrat/en/) — The pupil can widen from 2 to 8 millimetres: fourfold in diameter, sixteenfold in opening area. The geometry is simple; the retina adapts separately.
- [One Kilogram at Arm's Length](https://mariuscomper.uk/un-kilogram-la-capatul-bratului/en/) — At the same mass, distance from the elbow can change torque tenfold. Play with mass, distance, and angle, then see what static force would balance the object at the biceps.
- [Seven Milliseconds Behind the Head: The Biophysics of the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Why Your Eyes Beat Any Gimbal](https://mariuscomper.uk/sapte-milisecunde/en/) — While the cortical visual system needs 150 milliseconds to process motion, the inner ear vestibulo-ocular reflex rotates the eyes in the opposite direction in just 7 milliseconds through the fastest neural arc in the human body.
- [Why You Don't Deafen Yourself Talking](https://mariuscomper.uk/douazeci-de-decibeli/en/) — The quantitative biophysics of the stapedius reflex: anticipatory activity observed during vocalisation and frequency-dependent filtering in the middle ear. The simulator uses 20 decibels as an explicit model example.
- [Thirteen Nanometres: The Biophysics of Fingerprints and the Nanoscale Limit of Touch](https://mariuscomper.uk/treisprezece-nanometri/en/) — A static touch on the skin resolves two separate pins only when spaced at least 1.6 millimetres apart. Yet the moment a fingertip slides laterally, epidermal friction ridges convert microscopic surface relief into a 250 Hz shear wave, allowing the detection of surface grooves just 13 nanometres high.
- [Forty-Three Dioptres: Why We See Completely Blurred Underwater and Where the Eye's True Lens Really Is](https://mariuscomper.uk/patruzeci-si-trei-de-dioptrii/en/) — The eye's true lens is the cornea's curvature in air. That is why a dive mask restores sharp vision with completely flat glass.
- [Seven Metres per Second: Why the Pulse at Your Wrist Is Not the Blood Flowing](https://mariuscomper.uk/sapte-metri-pe-secunda/en/) — When you take your pulse, you feel an elastic shockwave travelling 35 times faster along the arterial wall than the blood itself.
- [Eleven Joules at the Heel](https://mariuscomper.uk/tendonul-arcului/en/) — An in-vivo study measured 11.3 J of propulsive recoil at 3.5 m/s; the historical 35 J figure is 3.1 times larger, but it does not describe the same measurement.
- [Two Hundred Milliseconds: Why You Can't Tickle Yourself](https://mariuscomper.uk/de-ce-nu-te-poti-gadila-singur/en/) — When you move a finger, the brain is already preparing the tactile consequence. A 200-millisecond delay made touch produced by your own movement receive ratings comparable to externally produced touch.
- [Water Wrinkles Begin in the Tiny Vessels of Your Finger](https://mariuscomper.uk/ridurile-de-apa/en/) — Finger wrinkles are not simply waterlogged skin: fingertip vasoconstriction changes the surface relief, while the grip experiment offers a measurable but task-specific effect.
- [The last signal | A 900-second EEG recording](https://mariuscomper.uk/the-last-signal/) — An evidence-led visual reading of a rare 900-second EEG recording around cardiac arrest. One case, four windows, and a careful boundary around what the signal can show.
- [Five Hundred and Eighty Calories per Gram: The Extreme Biophysics of Sweat and the Human Heat Engine](https://mariuscomper.uk/cinci-sute-optzeci-de-calorii/en/) — Why humans are Earth's greatest endurance coolers in the heat: the biophysics of water phase transition, 1,343-watt cooling power, and the dripping sweat paradox.
- [Forty-Three Degrees on the Tongue: Why Chili Pepper Activates the Fire Receptor at Body Temperature](https://mariuscomper.uk/patruzeci-si-trei-de-grade/en/) — Why spicy food burns without thermal injury: the biophysics of TRPV1, probabilistic activation-curve shifting, and the cold-water illusion.
- [Two Millinewtons per Metre: The Surface Tension of Lungs and the 480-Million-Bubble Paradox](https://mariuscomper.uk/doi-milinewtoni/en/) — If human lungs were lined with pure water, all 480 million alveoli would collapse immediately. A 2.5-gram lipid film reduces surface tension to 2 mN/m at expiration.
- [One Hundred and Fifty Millilitres: Anatomical Dead Space and the Alveolar Ventilation Paradox](https://mariuscomper.uk/o-suta-cincizeci-de-mililitri/en/) — A third of every breath never reaches the blood: the biophysical paradox of alveolar ventilation at 6 litres of air per minute and the physical limit of snorkeling.
- [One and a Half Watts: The Hydraulic Mechanics of the Human Heart](https://mariuscomper.uk/un-watt-si-jumatate/en/) — A pump displacing 7.6 tonnes of fluid daily operates at a mechanical output of just 1.33 watts and a total metabolic power of 7.4 watts.
- [Two Degrees Under the Thumbnail: Why 99% of What We See Is a Reconstructed Illusion](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-grade-sub-unghie/en/) — The central fovea spans only 1.5 degrees of visual angle (thumbnail width at arm length); at 20 degrees eccentricity visual acuity drops by 90%, our panorama being assembled from 200,000 saccades/day.
- [Nine Degrees Under Your Fingertip: Why Metal Feels Colder Than Wood](https://mariuscomper.uk/noua-grade-sub-deget/en/) — From the same 20 °C starting point, the skin interface reaches 20.6 °C on aluminium and 29.2 °C on wood; the idealised 8.65 °C gap comes from an effusivity ratio of almost 67 to 1.
- [Ten Oscillations a Second: The Hand's Physiological Tremor](https://mariuscomper.uk/zece-oscilatii/en/) — In a human centrifuge experiment, resonant mechanics predicted 99% of postural-tremor peak frequency. The phone used for measurement adds inertia and changes the observed spectrum.
- [The Two-Hour Nostril: The Hidden Asymmetry of Breathing](https://mariuscomper.uk/o-nara-la-doua-ore/en/) — At rest, 80% of air passes through one nostril (4:1 ratio) via cyclical turbinate engorgement, preventing ciliary desiccation and separating odors via dual-speed gas chromatography.
- [Four Grams in the Entire Bloodstream: Why the Body Lives on a Single Teaspoon of Glucose](https://mariuscomper.uk/patru-grame/en/) — Across all 5 litres of human blood, only 4.5 grams of glucose circulate (a single teaspoon of sugar), maintained with millimetric precision via a 200 g/day hepatic turnover.
- [Seven Hundred Newtons on the Molar: The Biomechanics of the Bite and Enamel's 100-Atmosphere Strength](https://mariuscomper.uk/sapte-sute-de-newtoni/en/) — Although the human jaw operates as a Class III lever with a mechanical disadvantage at the incisors (150–250 N), back at the second molar bite force surges to 700–900 N (70–90 kgf). Concentrated onto just a few square millimetres, contact stress exceeds 150–300 MPa (over 1,500 atmospheres — higher than the Mariana Trench), resisted without fracture by enamel's decussating prism architecture.
- [Ten Microseconds Between the Ears: How the Brain Computes Sound Location](https://mariuscomper.uk/zece-microsecunde/en/) — The human brainstem detects sound arrival disparities down to 10 microseconds (3.4 mm in air) using axonal delay lines and coincidence detector neurons in the medial superior olive.
- [Sixty Kilograms a Day: The Bioenergetics of ATP Recycling](https://mariuscomper.uk/saizeci-de-kilograme/en/) — At a daily burn of 2,500 kcal, your body synthesizes and breaks down 57.3 kg of ATP via F₀F₁ rotary nanomotors at 9,000 RPM, despite holding only 50 g in stock.
- [Two Hands, One Rhythm](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-maini/en/) — At 180°, cross-finger pairs alternate; as tempo rises, the pattern can fall abruptly into 0° symmetry. A test on your own hands reveals your personal threshold.
- [Seventy Kilograms a Day: The 21,000 RPM Turbine Inside Your Cells](https://mariuscomper.uk/saptezeci-de-kilograme/en/) — Your body stores just 50 grams of ATP, yet synthesizes 70 kilograms daily — spinning over 10¹⁷ rotary nanomachines at 21,000 RPM with near 100% thermodynamic efficiency.
- [Half a Millimetre per Second: Why Blood Nearly Stops in the Capillaries](https://mariuscomper.uk/jumatate-de-milimetru/en/) — At a resting cardiac output of 5.0 L/min, Q = A × v gives about 185 mm/s in the aorta and 0.19–0.24 mm/s across the capillary bed. Systemic oxygen exchange depends on tissue, metabolism, diffusion distance and flow distribution.
- [Nine Photons in the Dark: The Quantum Limit of Human Vision](https://mariuscomper.uk/noua-fotoni/en/) — Hecht estimated the visual threshold at 5–14 absorbed photons; 9 is representative. Modern intact-rod experiments estimate about 2,000 cGMP molecules hydrolyzed per R*, while the roughly 1 pA measurement came from toad rods.
- [One Million to One: The Stomach's Impossible Acid Gradient](https://mariuscomper.uk/un-milion-la-unu/en/) — At the parietal-cell apical membrane, the H⁺/K⁺-ATPase produces one of the steepest proton gradients known in mammalian tissue: from pH 7.40 in the cytosol to pH 1.40 in the secretory canaliculus, or one million to one. The mucus-bicarbonate barrier is 200 µm thick.
- [Eight Nanometres per Step: Kinesin's Invisible March](https://mariuscomper.uk/opt-nanometri/en/) — To haul cargo across one metre of axon, delivery accumulates the kinematic equivalent of 125 million 8-nm steps through coordinating kinesin relays. While free diffusion would exceed 150,000 years, in vivo fast axonal transport completes delivery in 2.5–5 days.
- [One Hundred and Eighty Litres a Day: The Kidney's Invisible Recycling Loop](https://mariuscomper.uk/o-suta-optzeci-de-litri/en/) — Every day, the kidneys generate 180 litres of ultrafiltrate across two million glomeruli, reclaiming 99.2% via solute transport and osmosis to leave just 1.5 litres of urine. A 1% reabsorption drop more than doubles urine output.
- [Forty Millimetres on the Back, Two on the Fingertip](https://mariuscomper.uk/patruzeci-de-milimetri/en/) — On the index fingertip we resolve two points 1.6 millimetres apart, but on the back they must be spread 42 millimetres apart to avoid fusing. The back compresses space by 26 times due to mechanoreceptor density and cortical magnification.
- [Spare Parts · An inventory of a body that never stops](https://mariuscomper.uk/piese/en/) — What your body makes in a second, a day and a lifetime. A live inventory of bodily rhythms and tissues that renew slowly.
- [Your Population — a census of the human body](https://mariuscomper.uk/populatia-ta/en/) — The human body hosts roughly 68 trillion cells in total — 30 trillion human cells (mostly red blood cells) and 38 trillion bacteria — shown as an interactive census by category, including the 2016 correction of the old "ten bacteria per human cell" estimate.
- [Your eyes have a stabilizer · A moving explanation](https://mariuscomper.uk/stabilizatorul/en/) — Turn the virtual head and see how the vestibulo-ocular reflex keeps your gaze in place.
- [Ten Picometres in the Eardrum](https://mariuscomper.uk/zece-picometri/en/) — If sound struck inner ear fluid directly, 99.89% of energy would bounce off like a wall. To bridge the impedance mismatch, evolution built a mechanical three-bone lever that amplifies pressure over 22-fold — enabling the eardrum to detect vibrations of just 10 picometres.
- [Ten Million Volts per Metre](https://mariuscomper.uk/zece-milioane-de-volti/en/) — A human cell maintains a resting potential of just 70 millivolts. Yet because this voltage drops across a lipid bilayer only 7 nanometres thick, the transverse electric field reaches 10,000,000 V/m — over three times the dielectric breakdown threshold of a lightning strike in air.
- [The Two Speeds of Pain](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-viteze/en/) — The 1.5-second gap between impact and ache: how nerve impulses race and why myelin saves a metre of spinal cord.
- [Genes Take the Lead at Ten](https://mariuscomper.uk/genele-la-zece-ani/en/) — By age nine, genes already explain 41% of intelligence differences between children, and family only 33%. By adulthood, the split reaches 80% against 10% (Haworth et al., 2010; Bouchard, 2013).
- [When Ambient Heat Becomes Dangerous in Pregnancy | The Heat Threshold](https://mariuscomper.uk/pragul-termic/en/) — A systematic synthesis of epidemiological evidence on ambient heat during pregnancy. How local climate, humidity, and gestational timing shape risk thresholds at 30.55°C, 34.11°C, and 39.07°C.
- [Thermodynamics of the Tongue and Blood: Butter and Margarine](https://mariuscomper.uk/unt-sau-margarina/en/) — Butter melts at 34°C on the tongue, while industrial margarine melts at 44°C like wax: 150 years of chemistry, gastronomy, and clinical trials.
- [Eight Point Four Kilograms](https://mariuscomper.uk/opt-kilograme/en/) — When you lose ten kilograms of fat, 8.4 kilograms leave through your lungs as invisible carbon dioxide, and 1.6 kilograms become water. An interactive exploration of respiratory mass biochemistry.
- [The Two-Degree Point](https://mariuscomper.uk/doua-grade/en/) — Out of 180 degrees of human vision, only a tiny two-degree window sees the world in full sharpness and color. The brain reconstructs the rest through four saccades per second.
- [The Clock of Birth](https://mariuscomper.uk/ora-nasterii/en/) — Human biology naturally schedules birth between 03:00 and 06:00 AM. Modern medicine concentrated deliveries at 09:00 AM, and Sunday births drop by 35%. Explore the 24-hour birth clock.
- [The Billion Heartbeats · Mammalian Cardiac Allometry & the 1.5 Billion Beat Lifespan Horizon](https://mariuscomper.uk/miliardul-de-batai/en/) — Every land mammal is allotted roughly 1.5 billion heartbeats across a lifetime. Modern humans doubled this biological baseline, accumulating nearly 3 billion beats.
- [Blood Doesn't Choose](https://mariuscomper.uk/sange/en/) — You do not choose your blood type, but it determines who you can donate to and receive from. Pick a type to see its compatibility and frequency in Romania and twenty other countries.
- [801,543,976,648,704 ways to write the same chain](https://mariuscomper.uk/acelasi-lant/en/) — Thirty amino acids have 801,543,976,648,704 RNA encodings.
- [The Moving Target](https://mariuscomper.uk/tinta/en/) — Statistics promise a boy born in Romania today 72.8 years. Follow 100,000 people born in the same year and see how the target moves as the years pass.
- [The cause we couldn't name](https://mariuscomper.uk/the-cause-we-couldnt-name/en/) — A reading of recorded causes of death in Romania from 2018 to 2022. How many identify the disease that began the chain, and how many leave the question open?
- [A Hundred and Five Names for One Ibuprofen](https://mariuscomper.uk/numele-de-pe-cutie/en/) — What the box says, what sits underneath, and what each name costs.
- [DRD4-7R and "wanderlust gene"](https://mariuscomper.uk/drd4-wanderlust/en/) — A critical synthesis of DRD4-7R, novelty, migration, culture and the only direct tourism study found in this research register.
- [The brain changes its immune guard after 50](https://mariuscomper.uk/garda-creierului/en/) — In the hippocampus of 40 donated brains, resident microglia thin out between about ages 50 and 75. Cells with a blood-lineage signature appear. The evidence comes from tissue, not a clinical test.
- [What You Can No Longer Hear](https://auzi.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Hearing at very high frequencies weakens first, long before speech becomes difficult to follow.
- [Power After Midnight](https://power-after-midnight.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — How much leaders sleep — and how much of the story survives scrutiny.
- [What If You Didn't Need to Sleep?](https://sleepless.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Sleep is a bundle of biological jobs. One experiment replaced a few of them locally.
- [Cold as medicine, debunked](https://frig.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — The big numbers come from doses nobody actually performs.
- [Avoidable death](https://moartea-evitabila.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Romania: 199.7. EU average: 86.8. The same measure and year, a gap of 112.9 points.
- [The complete guide to perimenopause and menopause](https://tranzitia.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — A final menstrual period gets its name only 12 months later. Symptoms and care can begin much earlier.
- [The Night That No Longer Cools Down](https://tropical-nights.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Tropical nights (≥ 20°C) are warming faster than daytime highs. An interactive explainer about recovery, Europe, Bucharest on the chart and mortality.
- [Sepsis Clarity](https://sepsis-clarity.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — A bilingual guide to recognising sepsis, emergency care, post-sepsis syndrome and recovery.
- [Living Atlas of Endometriosis](https://mariuscomper.uk/endometrioza-atlas-viu/en/) — A route through diagnosis, treatment, daily life and access, with the limits of the evidence in view.
- [The Thermometer & the Mind](https://termometrul-mintea.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — A multidisciplinary dossier about how heat affects sleep, mood, learning, decisions and aggression, with interactive visualisations.
- [ADHD Treatment Map](https://adhd-map.mariuscomper.uk/en/) — Treatment, evidence, costs and access in the US, UK, EU and Romania, in a bilingual documentary.
- [The Unseen Spectrum](https://mariuscomper.github.io/presentations/TheUnseenSpectrum.html) — An interactive documentary about colour-vision deficiency: prevalence, types, a simulator and educational and professional impact.

Updated: 2026-09-25