16 Do donated organs age according to the donor´s age, or do they adapt to the age of the new body?

There is plenty of data available on the effect of the donor’s age on the outcomes of organ transplantation. But the research is underutilized and not enough. If the donor is older, there will be negative effects on the outcome of the patient. But the aging rate varies between different organs and is far more complicated than it seems. There is a reason why the health of the organ is more important than the health of the donor when it comes to living organ donation. The liver typically will regenerate and renew, but kidney transplants will not do as well. This research is complex and multifactorial and is still in the early stages of research. (source)

17 Why does your body feel physically ill after experiencing emotional trauma?

Traumatic mental or emotional experiences often lead us to feel physically ill, including fatigue, exhaustion, nausea, vomiting, etc., mainly because it releases stress-inducing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. When we feel mental trauma or danger, the primitive parts of our nervous system, like the sympathetic nervous system, which controls our “fight-or-flight” response, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes us to shut down and conserve energy, both kick in, causing physical illness. It increases heart rate and blood pressure, suppresses the digestive system, and affects the immune system. They also control digestion and heart rate.

That explains why trauma often leads to constipation or fainting. But experts have concluded that the relationship between mental trauma and physical discomfort is not linear. Some may be fine, while others suffer. The trauma in itself doesn’t trigger the health condition, but how our bodies react to it does. This is an evolutionary response and not necessarily a bad thing. (source)

18 Why does hearing yourself speak with just a few seconds of delay completely crash your brain?

We need to hear ourselves speak. Any delay in auditory feedback disturbs the mechanisms in our brains and causes stress, making it difficult to speak. Have you noticed when, due to network issues, we hear ourselves after a delay over the phone, we have difficulty speaking and understanding clearly?

A complex mechanism enables our ears to convert the mechanical vibrations of sound to electrical energy, thereby allowing our brain to process and interpret these signals properly. For a person of normal hearing, the path from creating sound (speaking) to receiving, processing, and interpreting (hearing) is critical. Any delay in this process can confuse the brain and completely crash it.

This same phenomenon, called “delayed auditory feedback,” is used to treat people who suffer from stuttering. (1, 2)

19 Why do we feel the warmth of the Sun when it is 93 million miles away, and yet when a cloud passes over it, the warmth is instantly reduced?

The Sun’s heat reaches us in about eight minutes and 20 seconds. It travels through the vacuum of space through a phenomenon called “radiation.” Radiation is the kind of heat we feel when we keep our hands over the stove, and the heat transfers through electromagnetic waves without using particles. In the same way, the heat energy of the Sun scatters all over the Earth through convection and conduction, heating solid bodies, the ground, the water, etc. This energy warms our bodies. But why can’t it reach us through a cloud cover? Why do we instantly feel less warm?

This is because of thermal insulation. The insulation creates a kind of barricade between the hot and the cold to prevent heat energy transfer. The clouds act as insulators and block the heat energy from the Sun. Therefore, we feel less warmth as soon as it is cloudy. But the cloud cover also traps the heat in the atmosphere, keeping us warm, and this property of the clouds is essential in maintaining the optimum temperature of Earth. (source)

20 How do newborn babies instantly breathe air as soon as they come out when they haven’t done it before, for nine months?

Lungs start developing in babies very early in the pregnancy, but it is not until 24-36 weeks that the lungs develop alveoli, the tiny sacs that fill with oxygen. These help the babies breathe on their own once outside the womb. It is interesting to know the lungs are the only system in the body that remain dormant until after birth. Before that, the umbilical cord that connects to the placenta supplies oxygen to the baby, who breathes with the help of the mother’s placenta and the umbilical cord. Therefore, the lungs don’t get a practice run before birth, unlike other organs that are usually up and running while the baby is still in the womb.

Once the baby is born, the sudden change in the environment – which includes temperature changes, a lack of amniotic fluid, and exposure to air – triggers the baby to take its first breath, usually within 10 seconds. By this time, usually, the lungs are fully developed. Therefore, though the first breath is usually a gasp, babies continue to breathe air quite easily once outside the womb. The lungs inflate and begin working on their own, moving oxygen into the bloodstream (inhalation) and removing carbon dioxide by breathing out (exhalation). (source)