AFAIK it all boils down to the fact that during embryonal development our cells, which at that point were just a blob of undifferentiated autonomous chemical machines, somehow managed to unanimously agree upon the cardinal directions (up-down, left-right, front-back) for future development - and thanks to this, we don’t have toes growing out of our ears.
In science that is called symmetry breaking (going from a homogeneous blob to left right something) and a very active topic of Research.
I mean, that’s what dna is for. These machines aren’t operating blindly (or even “cooperating” or agreeing on anything, really). They’re following the code that makes up who we are.
Someone was probably born with toes on their head in the past and life didn’t go so well that they could have children that also survived. This is why our DNA doesn’t have instructions for growing toes on our head.
Those who don’t usually don’t make it far.
Survivorship bias
That’s not it.
Sure, but every cell has the same DNA. Yet some “decide” to “agree” on making toenails, while others differentiate into eyes.
If an embryo decides to split in two, and then sends out the marker that “this is the right side” and it’s too close to the other embro, there will be a set of identical twins, but one will have the heart on the right side, appendix on the opposite side etc. This needs to be known if the “mirrored” person has a colonoscopy, since the colon is folded the opposite direction.
The toes are the powerhouse of the foot
Gravity is what makes this happen. Guess what probably is a concern in space?
You know that we’ve gestated various animals in weightless conditions on the ISS, yes? They look normal.
We have? Do you have a source for that? That would be amazing. :)
Toe ears?
It’s not that incredible, considering we can get cysts full of teeth and hair inside the body
Imagine if you suddenly sprouted a tumor with functional tastebuds in your colon
“So what brings you into the doctors office today?”
“Well for some reason everything I eat ends up tasting like shit.”
You JUST realized that. 🙄
I mean, there are a lot of things that we’ve always “known”, but one day you just really thing about it and realize how fucking wild it is.
That’s why there is an entire community for shower thoughts: because people sometimes get these sudden realizations. But honestly, you got me - I realized it a few days ago and only got around to post it “now”.
