9 Questions About the Human Body Every Kid Wonders About

Kids spend a lot of time inside their own bodies without actually knowing much about what's going on in there. So it makes sense that some of the most persistent questions aren't about space or dinosaurs at all — they're about the strange, automatic things their own bodies keep doing without asking permission.

Why do we blink? Why do we hiccup? Why do we dream at all? These questions tend to arrive at odd moments — after a big yawn, right after a case of the hiccups at dinner — and they deserve better than "that's just what bodies do." Here are nine of them, with real answers waiting inside.

• Why do we blink?
• Why do we dream?
• Why do we get hiccups?
• Why do we sneeze?
• Why do we have fingerprints?
• Why do we yawn?
• Why do we get goosebumps?
• Why do we need sleep?
• Why do we sweat?

None of these are exotic questions. They're the kind that come from simply paying attention to being a body for a while — which, it turns out, is one of the most reliable ways a curious mind gets started.