In a huge event hosted by Guinness World Records two weeks ago on January 14th, 2009,  the world’s tallest man shacked hand with the world’s shortest man.

The event was hosted in Istanbul, Turkey where He Pingping, 21 years old from China met Sultan Kosen, 27, from Turkey.

He Pingping is officially the world’s shortest man with a height of 73 cm (2 feet 5 inch).

Turk, Kosen, is the tallest man walking the planet with a height of 246.5 cm ( 8 feet 1 inch).

The Science:

In the case of He Pingping, his condition is called “Dwarfism”. A dwarf is a person of short stature – under 4’ 10” as an adult. More than 200 different conditions can cause dwarfism. A single type, called achondroplasia, causes about 70 percent of all dwarfism. Achondroplasia is a genetic condition that affects about 1 in 25,000 people. It makes your arms and legs short in comparison to your head and trunk. Other genetic conditions, kidney disease and problems with metabolism or hormones can also cause short stature.

Kosen Turk condition is called Gigantism. Gigantism is abnormally large growth due to an excess of growth hormone during childhood, before the bone growth plates have closed. The most common cause of too much growth hormone release is a noncancerous (benign) tumor of the pituitary gland.

Sources – Medline Plus – Yahoo News