At the age of 20 there usually only remain about 206 distinct bones. Those of the hands and feet represent more than the majority – there are 27 bones in each foot, and 26 in each hand. 24 in the vertebral column, 24 in the ribs, 22 in the head…

The longest bone is undoubtedly the femur (50 cm long in a man 1.8 meters tall, or for the metrically challenged about 20 inches for a 6 foot man), with the smallest being the miniscule stirrup bone in the ear, which measures in at a mere 3mm.

The majority of people might reply that ‘life’ is just like that, but that’s most certainly a fallacious view. Bacteria, microbes, and viruses don’t age at all. Fancy that.

In fact, aging its concurrent processes are predominantely caused by one most unfortunate chain of events. The earth is situated at just the distance away from the sun that allowed for life to develop, which is a rather good thing as far as  things go, since it’s thanks to this fact that we all exist at all. However, the multicellular organisms that have flourished on our good blue sphere have inherited a cardio-respiratory system that required a constant stream of oxygen in order to survive. And that’s where the problem starts.

Oxygen is responsible for oxidation; in other words, oxygen is a natural poison that literally ‘destroys’ the atoms that it fixes to by stealing from them, little by little, their electrons. This phenomemom is for that matter also partly responsible for the formation of rust.

On breathing, we force oxygen to enter our lungs. This oxygen is then diffused through the entirety of our bodies, bathing our organs and allowing out body to function.

So then, with time, our body ‘oxidizes’ itself and it’s partly because of this that our bodies degrade over the years. Keep in mind however, that there’s a multitude of psychological and physical reasons playing a role in the destruction of the human organism.

But so why don’t bacteria age?

Bacteria and other unicellular organisms don’t have and don’t use a respiratory system. They have no need of oxygen in order to exist.

To conclude, remember to be a bit wary of the next person who tells you to ‘get a breath of fresh air’!