Atomic wedgy

[Southwind17]

Is it true that there are atoms within our bodies that once formed part of William Shakespeare's body, by virtue of his decomposition, dispersion and our digestion? If so, and by the same token, who, and indeed what else, can we both boast to be, and, of course, refrain from acknowledging, being "affiliated" with?!

 

[MetalPig]

I think it's statistically uber-likely, but even so, there is nothing Shakespearean about those atoms.

 

[Floyt]

Supernovae. Every single trans-iron atom in your body was once part of a supernova. Beats most of the local heroes.

 

[Dancing David]

The oceans are all urine.

 

[rjh01]

Supernovae. Every single trans-iron atom in your body was once part of a supernova. Beats most of the local heroes.

I would go further. Every atom other than Hydrogen and Helium was created either in a star or when it when it exploded.

 

[LarianLeQuella]

Every time you take a drink, a molecule that passed through Henry VIII's bladder is passing your lips. Tell that to a homeopathy wooist.

 

[Thabiguy]

Is it true that there are atoms within our bodies that once formed part of William Shakespeare's body, by virtue of his decomposition, dispersion and our digestion?

That's an interesting question. Let's see if we can check it with a quick-and-dirty calculation.

The CO₂ that Shakespeare breathed out during his life may have contained, let's say, 5 tons of carbon - these carbon atoms were at some point part of his body. Let's assume that the winds did a thorough job mixing that CO₂ throughout the atmosphere, which contains some 750 billion^* tons of carbon, so the concentration of Shakespearean carbon would be about 1 part per 150 billion^*.

Some of that carbon has been locked up in the biosphere since then, but it would be too far-fetched for this rough calculation to estimate how much. If none of it entered the biosphere, the concentration would be about 1 part per 150 billion^*, and if all of it were evenly distributed throughout the whole biosphere (some 42 trillion^* tons of carbon), the remaining atmospheric concentration would be about 1 part per 9 trillion^*. Let's simply assume the current atmospheric concentration of Shakespearean carbon is somewhere between those two values.

Because people usually don't eat old trees and marine sediments, but relatively fresh biomass, the concentration of Shakespearean carbon in our food - therefore in our bodies - should be about the same as atmospheric concentration. Our bodies contain about 18% of carbon by mass, and 1 kg of carbon contains about 50 septillion^* atoms.

Given the assumptions mentioned above, we should therefore expect an adult human weighing 70 kg to contain something between 60 and 4200 trillion^* carbon atoms that were once part of Shakespeare's body.

^*short scale

Supernovae. Every single trans-iron atom in your body was once part of a supernova. Beats most of the local heroes.

Many of the trans-iron atoms were once part of a supernova, but many others were likely created via s-process and may never have been through a supernova explosion.

(For extra nitpickiness: there may even be some atoms that were never part of any star and were formed in some rare collision or other exotic process. These would be very rare, of course, but then again the number of atoms in a human's body is very large.)

 

[Dancing David]

I would go further. Every atom other than Hydrogen and Helium was created either in a star or when it when it exploded.

Except for a small fraction of some of the lithium.

 

[Dancing David]

(For extra nitpickiness: there may even be some atoms that were never part of any star and were formed in some rare collision or other exotic process. These would be very rare, of course, but then again the number of atoms in a human's body is very large.)

I am not sure about that, like how and what?

 

[Thabiguy]

I am not sure about that, like how and what?

For example, light atom nuclei can form via cosmic ray spallation. Black hole accretion disks offer another possibility for nucleosynthesis outside stars. Nucleosynthesis could also occur elsewhere, at very low rates that would be insignificant or even unmeasurable in comparison with the major processes generating heavy nuclei, but given the very large number of atoms in human body (on the order of 10²⁷), some of them could plausibly have such an exotic origin.

 

[noreligion]

Isn't this more eternal life than the bs in the bible?

 

[Crazycowbob]

Wow, kind of crazy how being made up of so many little bits can make this possible! Have to love the power of statistics, though we're making a big assumption in saying that the mass of carbon has had time to so evenly disperse and and such I'd wager?

 

[bokonon]

Isn't this more eternal life than the bs in the bible?

If you're an atom, maybe it's a big deal to you that you were once part of the Bard.

For me, and the sense of self I regard as essential to "my life", the fact that the transient elements which provide the scaffolding for that sense to manifest existed before me and will continue after me is no more "eternal life" than the fact that the earth will still be here after I'm gone.

 

[Southwind17]

Isn't this more eternal life than the bs in the bible?

If you're an atom, maybe it's a big deal to you that you were once part of the Bard.

For me, and the sense of self I regard as essential to "my life", the fact that the transient elements which provide the scaffolding for that sense to manifest existed before me and will continue after me is no more "eternal life" than the fact that the earth will still be here after I'm gone.

Actually, I've brought some people's attention to this concept as a means of offering an alternative comfort blanket to the religious life after death notion. Of course, it relies on a degree of scientific thinking and acceptance to get it over the line, but I think it's quite a neat notion that, at the atomic level, we're all "immortal".

Wow, kind of crazy how being made up of so many little bits can make this possible! Have to love the power of statistics, though we're making a big assumption in saying that the mass of carbon has had time to so evenly disperse and and such I'd wager?

I did wonder whether anybody would raise the point that given Shakespeare was buried in some form of coffin then the dispersion part of the process might be somewhat inhibited! I think you're wrong, though, if you're suggesting that this is only a statistical notion.

 

[Crazycowbob]

I think you're wrong, though, if you're suggesting that this is only a statistical notion.

Being the Bovine Overlord, clearly I am not wrong. I will however accept the possibility that the laws of physics and mathmatics may have changed since I made my last statement...

 

[bokonon]

Actually, I've brought some people's attention to this concept as a means of offering an alternative comfort blanket to the religious life after death notion. Of course, it relies on a degree of scientific thinking and acceptance to get it over the line, but I think it's quite a neat notion that, at the atomic level, we're all "immortal".

Whatever floats your boat.

For me, that sort of "immortality" is about as meaningful and satisfying as the notion that I got into Iman's pants by virtue of the fact that a molecule I exhaled decades ago one day drifted across her thighs.

 

[Southwind17]

Whatever floats your boat.

For me, that sort of "immortality" is about as meaningful and satisfying as the notion that I got into Iman's pants by virtue of the fact that a molecule I exhaled decades ago one day drifted across her thighs.

We already know what floats your boat:

For me, and the sense of self I regard as essential to "my life", the fact that the transient elements which provide the scaffolding for that sense to manifest existed before me and will continue after me is no more "eternal life" than the fact that the earth will still be here after I'm gone.

There's really no need to bang on about what works for you as though your boat floater is somehow of greater bouyancy that anybody else's.

 

[quarky]

With cremation becoming more popular, famous people's atoms will be quicker to infect us all. I have probably already inhaled a few carbon atoms of my parents.