The Skin We're In.

We're talking all about SKIN thanks to my NPLEX studying this week; here are some tidbits that I have learned:

- Caucasians are mostly 'white' in appearance due to their melanin-poor skin.  Without a lot of melanin covering the skin and giving it pigment/color, the white-colored collagen---lying under the surface of the skin---tends to shine through, giving the skin a pale or 'white' color.

- The skin is thickest on our feet, palms of our hands, and on our lower back. The thinnest skin we have is on our eyelids.

Image source here.

- Some parts of our skin are extremely sensitive to temperature, pain, light touch, etc. (e.g. the skin on our face). This heighten sensitivity is due to the presence of free nerve endings lying near the surface of the skin.

- Each hair on our skin has a muscle near its shaft (the arrector pili muscle).  This muscle contracts and makes our hair stand on its end when we are cold (producing what we commonly refer to as 'goosebumps').

Image source here.

 - The purpose of the raised hair shafts (goosebumps) is to create tiny grooves or pockets on the skin in order to trap warm air, helping our skin warm-up.


P.S. Check out this info-graphic on the benefits of spending time outdoors (produced by the creators of the 30x30 Nature Challenge!). Cool stuff.