‘It’s Okay To Be Smart’ Counts the Number of Heartbeats the Average Human Experiences in a Lifetime

It’s Okay To Be Smart (previously) host Joe Hanson celebrates Valentine’s Day by explaining how many heartbeats animals and humans experience over the course of their lifetimes. The short touches on the “Heartbeat Hypothesis,” which suggests that animals have a finite number of beats in a lifetime.

Animals of all sizes seem to get about a billion heartbeats in a lifetime. The heart isn’t some sort of ticking clock counting down to six feet under, but there is some truth to the billion beat hypothesis.

Of course, thanks to modern science, humans have managed to live long past their billionth beat expiration date.