WHY DO HUMANS STOP GROWING AS ADULTS?

Rianne Iles

You’re probably referring to the fact we all stop getting taller in early adulthood. Children grow taller because their bones get longer via growth plates at their ends. When we finish puberty and enter adulthood, both men and women start producing more of the hormone oestrogen. This higher oestrogen level shuts down the growth plates and stops our bones getting longer. But our ears and noses never stop growing. Rather than bone, they are soft tissue and cartilage. Some scientists think cartilage cells keep on growing. Others think that gravity’s pull tugs away forever, lengthening these features all through our lives.

Adults make more oestrogen than children, which shuts down the growth of their bones