Feb. 1, 2023
Do you know about bones? 🦴
Did you know? In this episode we are going to look at bones. We are going to find out about what our bones help us to do, how they are made, how we can protect them and how they can heal. We are also going to look at how our bones are like that of a bird.
Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark
❤️👂🔬
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About Sleep Tight Science
Sleep Tight Science is an engaging bedtime show for the whole family that answers the questions kids have about science. Have an interesting science topic you would like featured? Send us an email at hello@sleeptightscience.com and we may feature it in an upcoming show.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker 1: You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know that every ten years you create a new you? What? In adults, every year about ten percent of our bones are replaced. That means as the mineral content in your bones is renewed, we get a new skeleton about every ten years. Wow, Hello friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers your questions about science. How do you think your body helps you to get from place to place?
00:01:15
Speaker 2: Bones?
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Your bones help you move and stand. Our bones come in many shapes and sizes. Some are long and straight, some are short, and some are small and curved. Some of our bones have the very important job of protecting our body parts, such as our lungs, heart, and brain. In this episode, we will start to learn all about the science of bones and try to answer some of the questions that our listeners have submitted.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: About this topic.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Before we get started with our topic, let's look at a couple of questions sent in by our listeners. Why do people get itchy? This question was sent in by seven year old Zavia. Our skin has a way of telling us when something touches our body, such as perhaps an annoying mosquito.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: Our nerves are the system that helps us to realize this.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: A lot of things other than mosquitos can make you itchy. It could be something you have touched, from a plant to a chemical, or it could be related to an infection or illness you might have caught. It could even be because of something you ate. When your skin feels itchy, your nerves send a signal or message to your brain, and your brain gets you to scratch. Scratching is our way of trying to get rid of whatever might be causing the annoyance. Of course, if it is a rash, make sure you show it to someone, as scratching might actually make it worse. How do worms get in apples in the first place. This question was sent in by Morrow, who is five years old and lives in Dubravnk, Croatia. Wellmorrow, they don't get in. They are actually born in the apple. In the summer, some moths find the apple orchards a nice, shady, safe place to lay their eggs. The moth use a small, sharp tube to slide their eggs into the apple. These moths feel that their eggs will be safe here in the apple and that they will have lots of food to eat when they are born. When the larvae or small worm is born, they burrow down into the fruit, creating paths called strings. Our whirlpools mate. This question was sent in by five year old Andrew. Whirlpools are a wonder that forms when water moving in two different directions come together and react in an abnormal or unusual way. When the two collide, they cannot travel at the same speed or in the same direction as they were before, so they swirl around each other. Some whirlpools last for a very short period of time, then others last for much longer. What are bones and what do they do? Bones are very strong, but also very light. They provide enough support to help give our body shape and carry the weight of our body. Some of our bones have very special jobs, such as protecting a part of our body. The skull protects the brain and creates the structure or shape of our face. Our spinal column or backbone, is like a hollow tube like structure that wraps around our spinal cord to protect it. The spinal cord is a series of nerve cells and groups of nerves which carry messages between our brain and our body. The spinal column also helps us to stand up straight, bend, and twist. The ribs and pelvis also help protect some of our important organs. The ribs provide a kind of cage that protects the heart and lungs, and the pelvis helps keep the bladder and part of your intestines safe. Our bones contain bone marrow. Inside bone marrow is a kind of thick jelly that is inside your bones, which makes blood cells. This spongy jelly makes red blood cells, which carry oxygen, white blood cells that help you fight infections, and platelets, which are the smallest of all your blood cells. Platelets are a part of the cells that help your blood to clot when you cut or hurt yourself. Our bones also help our bodies to store or hold on to minerals such as calcium and vitamin D. Calcium helps keep our bones solid and strong, and vitamin D helps our bodies to be able to take in and use the calcium that we need. For us to get the right amount of calcium and vitamin D, we should have two to three helpings or servings of dairy products such as milk, cheese, or yogurt. You can also eat fortified foods or foods that have nutrients added to them. These might include cereals, bread, eggs, fruit juices, or soy or other malk alternatives. What are bones made of. Bones are made up of compact bone, or the hard outer layer, and the trabecular bone, which is a porous or spongy, mushy material that looks a bit like a kitchen sponge. They also contain bone marrow. Bone marrow is the spongy jelly found inside the bones. The outside compact bone is made up of living tissue as well as hard minerals such as calcium. This makes this kind of bone very hard and smooth. Inside this hard compact bone is the spongy material that allows our bones to be lighter and easier to move around.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: The sponginess also leaves room.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: For the blood vessels and helps our bones to be able to bend a bit. The spaces in the sponge also help to take in any shocks or sudden strain on your bone. At the center of your bone is a softer, jelly like substance called marrow. There are two types of bone marrow in your body, yellow and red. Your body can hold about two point five kilograms or six pounds of bone marrow. The yellow bone marrow stores fat or energy for developing bone muscles or fat cells.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: For your body.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: Red marrow is where red and white blood cells are produced by our bodies. How do bones grow? Do you have a piggy bank or someplace where you save money. You can think of your bones like a bank where you put in or deposit and take out or withdraw bone tissue. When you are a child and into your teens, new bone is added or deposited to the skeleton faster than old bone is removed or withdrawn. As a result of these frequent deposits, your bones become larger, heavier, and more solid. Until around age twenty, bone formation continues at a faster pace than bone removal. After thirty, our bone withdrawals can start to go faster than our deposits. If you are not careful to keep the two balanced, you could get something like osteoporosis, which is a disease that causes your bones to become weak and then they can break more easily. So how do broken bones heal? Your body can heal your broken bones all on its own, but usually a doctor will help you making sure that the bone heels straight and properly by using a cast or a sling. A broken bone heals in stages. When the bone first breaks, there will be blood around it, and the blood will form a sort of scap over the broken parts. Next, a tougher tissue will start to grow over the broken area. This is called collagen. The collagen, together with cartilage, will bridge the space between the two sides of the break. This bridge or joining will continue to change and harden until the bone is healed. It can sometimes take months for bones to heal and get back to normal. You need to be careful while the bone is healing because it can't take the stress of a normal bone. This is why you often see people using crutches and slings to help take the pressure off the bone while it heals. When bones break, the break is often called a fracture. Most of these fractures are simple, which means that they are beneath the skin. If it is a more serious break and the bone pokes out of the skin, it is called a compound fracture. How quickly your bones he often depends on your age. As people get older, it often takes longer for broken bones to heal. How are human bones different from bird bones. The avian or bird skeleton, and the human skeleton have many features or characteristics that are alike. Most of our bones are the same, but are simply shaped differently. The main difference between the human skeleton and the bird skeleton is that the bird skeleton is adjusted or changed to allow the bird to fly. For example, unlike our bones, the bones of a bird are hollow, which makes their skeleton lighter. Another difference is the collar bone of the bird, which is fused or merged together for strength, and is called the ferculum. We have three bones in our arms, called the humorus, the radius, and the ulna. These bones are also found in the bird. Our legs consist of a long femur bone which attaches to the pelvis, and then the two bones of the lower leg, the tibia and the fibula. In a bird, these two bones, the tibia and fibula, are fused or joined together, where ours are not. Both of our heads are protected by a large bone called the cranium. Our upper jaw and their upper beak is made up of a bone called the maxilla. Our lower jaw and their lower beak is made up of a bone called the mandible. There are some other differences between the bird and human skeleton, and this is very easy to see in the pectoral girdle, which is where the wings of the bird attached to their spine. The bird's wings need to have a strong support system, so the collar bone of the bird is fused or joined together to form the ferculum or wishbone. Another obvious difference between our skeleton and the skeleton of a bird is the shape and size of the sternum or breastbone. A bird's sternum is large and positioned under the body, and their flight muscles are attached to this bone. Our vertebrae and the bird's vertebrae are comparable except for the bone where the bird's tail feathers attach, which is called the pygestyle.
00:17:22
Speaker 2: We have a tailbone that is.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: Similar to theirs, but not exactly the same. Fun facts of the two hundred and six bones in your body. One hundred and six are found in your hands and feet. The weight of an adult skeleton is about fourteen percent of their total body weight. One in two hundred people have one or two extra ribs. The jaw bone is the toughest bone in the body. You can make your bone stronger by eating certain foods. Bones lose strength over time. Keeping them strong requires eating calcium like foods like dairy products, yummy broccoli, and some fish. Exercise helps keep bones strong too. A skeletal system like ours isn't that common.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: Humans are part.
00:18:51
Speaker 1: Of a group of creatures called vertebrates. Only ten percent of animals are in this group. That means our bones are covered by a system of tissue and skin. The other ninety percent of creatures are invertebrates. Their bones are on the outside of their body. Can you imagine if we had our bones on the outside, that would be kind of yucky. The funny bone isn't a bone at all. When you hit your elbow a certain way, you are triggering the ulnar nerve. The scientific study of bones is called osteology, and someone who studies osteology is called an osteologist. The most fragile bones in the human body are toe bones, so protect your toes. That's why some work boots have hardened parts where the toes might be to protect your toe bones. The largest bone in the human body is the femur, also known as the thigh bone.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: Do bones have skin?
00:20:23
Speaker 1: Bones have an outer layer that is like a thin skin or membrane. This membrane is called the periostium. This can be thick and is filled with blood vessels that help feed the bone. Many nerves also fill this membrane. The weakest and softest bone in the human body is the clavicle.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Or collar bone.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: Because it is a tiny bone which runs horizontally across your breast bone and collar bone.
00:20:58
Speaker 2: It is very easy to shaft.
00:21:05
Speaker 1: The smallest bone in the human body is the stirrup, also known as the states. This is located in your ear and helps transfer sound vibrations to the inner ear. This bone is only two point eight millimeters or point eleven inches long. Like our skin, the human body's bones are also constantly worn down and remade, to the point where every seven years we basically have a new bone. Why did the skeleton move to Hollywood? You wanted to be a star? Well, we covered a lot of information in this episode. We talked about our bones, what they are made up of, and what they can help us do. We looked at how we can help our bones to stay strong and how they repair themselves when they get broken. We also looked at how our skeleton compares to a bird skeleton. I'd like to give a shout out to Julian James for some of the questions used in today's episode. I'd also like to thank Ella, Andrew and Finley. We hope to have a chance to use your ideas in future episodes.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: If you'd like
00:22:49
Speaker 1: To send us your questions, please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com.
Speaker 1: You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know that every ten years you create a new you? What? In adults, every year about ten percent of our bones are replaced. That means as the mineral content in your bones is renewed, we get a new skeleton about every ten years. Wow, Hello friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers your questions about science. How do you think your body helps you to get from place to place?
00:01:15
Speaker 2: Bones?
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Your bones help you move and stand. Our bones come in many shapes and sizes. Some are long and straight, some are short, and some are small and curved. Some of our bones have the very important job of protecting our body parts, such as our lungs, heart, and brain. In this episode, we will start to learn all about the science of bones and try to answer some of the questions that our listeners have submitted.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: About this topic.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Before we get started with our topic, let's look at a couple of questions sent in by our listeners. Why do people get itchy? This question was sent in by seven year old Zavia. Our skin has a way of telling us when something touches our body, such as perhaps an annoying mosquito.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: Our nerves are the system that helps us to realize this.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: A lot of things other than mosquitos can make you itchy. It could be something you have touched, from a plant to a chemical, or it could be related to an infection or illness you might have caught. It could even be because of something you ate. When your skin feels itchy, your nerves send a signal or message to your brain, and your brain gets you to scratch. Scratching is our way of trying to get rid of whatever might be causing the annoyance. Of course, if it is a rash, make sure you show it to someone, as scratching might actually make it worse. How do worms get in apples in the first place. This question was sent in by Morrow, who is five years old and lives in Dubravnk, Croatia. Wellmorrow, they don't get in. They are actually born in the apple. In the summer, some moths find the apple orchards a nice, shady, safe place to lay their eggs. The moth use a small, sharp tube to slide their eggs into the apple. These moths feel that their eggs will be safe here in the apple and that they will have lots of food to eat when they are born. When the larvae or small worm is born, they burrow down into the fruit, creating paths called strings. Our whirlpools mate. This question was sent in by five year old Andrew. Whirlpools are a wonder that forms when water moving in two different directions come together and react in an abnormal or unusual way. When the two collide, they cannot travel at the same speed or in the same direction as they were before, so they swirl around each other. Some whirlpools last for a very short period of time, then others last for much longer. What are bones and what do they do? Bones are very strong, but also very light. They provide enough support to help give our body shape and carry the weight of our body. Some of our bones have very special jobs, such as protecting a part of our body. The skull protects the brain and creates the structure or shape of our face. Our spinal column or backbone, is like a hollow tube like structure that wraps around our spinal cord to protect it. The spinal cord is a series of nerve cells and groups of nerves which carry messages between our brain and our body. The spinal column also helps us to stand up straight, bend, and twist. The ribs and pelvis also help protect some of our important organs. The ribs provide a kind of cage that protects the heart and lungs, and the pelvis helps keep the bladder and part of your intestines safe. Our bones contain bone marrow. Inside bone marrow is a kind of thick jelly that is inside your bones, which makes blood cells. This spongy jelly makes red blood cells, which carry oxygen, white blood cells that help you fight infections, and platelets, which are the smallest of all your blood cells. Platelets are a part of the cells that help your blood to clot when you cut or hurt yourself. Our bones also help our bodies to store or hold on to minerals such as calcium and vitamin D. Calcium helps keep our bones solid and strong, and vitamin D helps our bodies to be able to take in and use the calcium that we need. For us to get the right amount of calcium and vitamin D, we should have two to three helpings or servings of dairy products such as milk, cheese, or yogurt. You can also eat fortified foods or foods that have nutrients added to them. These might include cereals, bread, eggs, fruit juices, or soy or other malk alternatives. What are bones made of. Bones are made up of compact bone, or the hard outer layer, and the trabecular bone, which is a porous or spongy, mushy material that looks a bit like a kitchen sponge. They also contain bone marrow. Bone marrow is the spongy jelly found inside the bones. The outside compact bone is made up of living tissue as well as hard minerals such as calcium. This makes this kind of bone very hard and smooth. Inside this hard compact bone is the spongy material that allows our bones to be lighter and easier to move around.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: The sponginess also leaves room.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: For the blood vessels and helps our bones to be able to bend a bit. The spaces in the sponge also help to take in any shocks or sudden strain on your bone. At the center of your bone is a softer, jelly like substance called marrow. There are two types of bone marrow in your body, yellow and red. Your body can hold about two point five kilograms or six pounds of bone marrow. The yellow bone marrow stores fat or energy for developing bone muscles or fat cells.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: For your body.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: Red marrow is where red and white blood cells are produced by our bodies. How do bones grow? Do you have a piggy bank or someplace where you save money. You can think of your bones like a bank where you put in or deposit and take out or withdraw bone tissue. When you are a child and into your teens, new bone is added or deposited to the skeleton faster than old bone is removed or withdrawn. As a result of these frequent deposits, your bones become larger, heavier, and more solid. Until around age twenty, bone formation continues at a faster pace than bone removal. After thirty, our bone withdrawals can start to go faster than our deposits. If you are not careful to keep the two balanced, you could get something like osteoporosis, which is a disease that causes your bones to become weak and then they can break more easily. So how do broken bones heal? Your body can heal your broken bones all on its own, but usually a doctor will help you making sure that the bone heels straight and properly by using a cast or a sling. A broken bone heals in stages. When the bone first breaks, there will be blood around it, and the blood will form a sort of scap over the broken parts. Next, a tougher tissue will start to grow over the broken area. This is called collagen. The collagen, together with cartilage, will bridge the space between the two sides of the break. This bridge or joining will continue to change and harden until the bone is healed. It can sometimes take months for bones to heal and get back to normal. You need to be careful while the bone is healing because it can't take the stress of a normal bone. This is why you often see people using crutches and slings to help take the pressure off the bone while it heals. When bones break, the break is often called a fracture. Most of these fractures are simple, which means that they are beneath the skin. If it is a more serious break and the bone pokes out of the skin, it is called a compound fracture. How quickly your bones he often depends on your age. As people get older, it often takes longer for broken bones to heal. How are human bones different from bird bones. The avian or bird skeleton, and the human skeleton have many features or characteristics that are alike. Most of our bones are the same, but are simply shaped differently. The main difference between the human skeleton and the bird skeleton is that the bird skeleton is adjusted or changed to allow the bird to fly. For example, unlike our bones, the bones of a bird are hollow, which makes their skeleton lighter. Another difference is the collar bone of the bird, which is fused or merged together for strength, and is called the ferculum. We have three bones in our arms, called the humorus, the radius, and the ulna. These bones are also found in the bird. Our legs consist of a long femur bone which attaches to the pelvis, and then the two bones of the lower leg, the tibia and the fibula. In a bird, these two bones, the tibia and fibula, are fused or joined together, where ours are not. Both of our heads are protected by a large bone called the cranium. Our upper jaw and their upper beak is made up of a bone called the maxilla. Our lower jaw and their lower beak is made up of a bone called the mandible. There are some other differences between the bird and human skeleton, and this is very easy to see in the pectoral girdle, which is where the wings of the bird attached to their spine. The bird's wings need to have a strong support system, so the collar bone of the bird is fused or joined together to form the ferculum or wishbone. Another obvious difference between our skeleton and the skeleton of a bird is the shape and size of the sternum or breastbone. A bird's sternum is large and positioned under the body, and their flight muscles are attached to this bone. Our vertebrae and the bird's vertebrae are comparable except for the bone where the bird's tail feathers attach, which is called the pygestyle.
00:17:22
Speaker 2: We have a tailbone that is.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: Similar to theirs, but not exactly the same. Fun facts of the two hundred and six bones in your body. One hundred and six are found in your hands and feet. The weight of an adult skeleton is about fourteen percent of their total body weight. One in two hundred people have one or two extra ribs. The jaw bone is the toughest bone in the body. You can make your bone stronger by eating certain foods. Bones lose strength over time. Keeping them strong requires eating calcium like foods like dairy products, yummy broccoli, and some fish. Exercise helps keep bones strong too. A skeletal system like ours isn't that common.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: Humans are part.
00:18:51
Speaker 1: Of a group of creatures called vertebrates. Only ten percent of animals are in this group. That means our bones are covered by a system of tissue and skin. The other ninety percent of creatures are invertebrates. Their bones are on the outside of their body. Can you imagine if we had our bones on the outside, that would be kind of yucky. The funny bone isn't a bone at all. When you hit your elbow a certain way, you are triggering the ulnar nerve. The scientific study of bones is called osteology, and someone who studies osteology is called an osteologist. The most fragile bones in the human body are toe bones, so protect your toes. That's why some work boots have hardened parts where the toes might be to protect your toe bones. The largest bone in the human body is the femur, also known as the thigh bone.
00:20:20
Speaker 2: Do bones have skin?
00:20:23
Speaker 1: Bones have an outer layer that is like a thin skin or membrane. This membrane is called the periostium. This can be thick and is filled with blood vessels that help feed the bone. Many nerves also fill this membrane. The weakest and softest bone in the human body is the clavicle.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Or collar bone.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: Because it is a tiny bone which runs horizontally across your breast bone and collar bone.
00:20:58
Speaker 2: It is very easy to shaft.
00:21:05
Speaker 1: The smallest bone in the human body is the stirrup, also known as the states. This is located in your ear and helps transfer sound vibrations to the inner ear. This bone is only two point eight millimeters or point eleven inches long. Like our skin, the human body's bones are also constantly worn down and remade, to the point where every seven years we basically have a new bone. Why did the skeleton move to Hollywood? You wanted to be a star? Well, we covered a lot of information in this episode. We talked about our bones, what they are made up of, and what they can help us do. We looked at how we can help our bones to stay strong and how they repair themselves when they get broken. We also looked at how our skeleton compares to a bird skeleton. I'd like to give a shout out to Julian James for some of the questions used in today's episode. I'd also like to thank Ella, Andrew and Finley. We hope to have a chance to use your ideas in future episodes.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: If you'd like
00:22:49
Speaker 1: To send us your questions, please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com.