The Stomach: Overlooked System of Engineering

Take hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid is strong enough to corrode metal. If you poured it on your hand, it would burn straight through tissue. Yet your stomach produces and contains this substance daily — without digesting itself. That’s not a trivial trick of nature. It’s a system with layers of timing, containment, and control. The stomach produces this highly corrosive substance in order to denature (break down) proteins, destroy pathogens, and activate the enzyme pepsin.