9 'Amazing Facts' That Are Totally Untrue

8. You're More Bacteria Than You

A commonly quoted statistic is that there are 10 times as many bacteria cells in your body than human cells, whether the implication is supposed to be mind-boggling or stomach churning, it's almost certainly wrong.

Not only is this misleading, as the relative size of a bacterium compared to a human cell is absolutely miniscule (about a hundredth of the size), but it's also probably not true at all.

There's actually very little research into the number of cells, bacterial or otherwise, in the human body, and the 10:1 figure probably came from a now disproven estimate in a paper from 1972. This dearth of proper research led researchers in 2014 to have a proper count.

It turns out that, cell for cell, human and bacteria are about neck and neck at an average ratio of 1.3:1, but given the aforementioned size difference, you're almost certainly more "you" than anything else.