Can this be true?

The intestinal mucosa forms the largest surface area of the human body. Unfolded, it would occupy approximately the area of a tennis court. It represents an interface between the body and the environment, and is therefore vulnerable to pathogens and worm infections…

A surface the size of a tennis court is inside of me? I must be reading this wrong.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

11 replies on “Unfolding”

  1. In our new post-slavery world according to Charles, where the Only slave experience was the Black American slave experience, Anything is true.

  2. You have many surfaces the size of a tennis court (and larger) in your body. The surface of your lungs is one example. Your intestinal mucosa is another. These are very thin surfaces that are folded many, many times, and, if you were to spread them out, they’d take up a lot of space. Of course, they’re also too thin to see if you spread them out, and they are certainly too delicate to lay out on a tennis court. Essentially, you can’t unfold them.

    However, the surface area is important: a large surface area makes it possible to absorb an enormous amount of nutrients in your intestine and to absorb a lot of oxygen across your lungs.

  3. In your case, Chuck, from the amount of shit you produce, I would imagine that your intestinal mucosa must be much larger than any tennis court… think football field…

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