• Question: how many molicules are we made of?

    Asked by tumblebum to Pete on 10 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Pete Gwynne

      Pete Gwynne answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      i’ve had to do some maths early in the morning, which i normally try to avoid 🙁 BUT there’s about 40,000,000,000,000 cells in your body (40 trillion). the number of molecules in a cell is a bit harder to guess, but we know they’re mostly water so and we know how big they are, so i’m guessing at about 20,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. if we add another 50,000,000 which i think is about how many molecules of everything else per cell, then i think that makes this many molecules in a human body (brace yourself):

      800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or eight billion trillion)

      i might be a few hundred out though as i’ve had to guess a bit.

      if you take all the water out though, it’s only really three types of molecule. humans, plants, bees, mushrooms, mould and everything else is just made of proteins, fats, and DNA.

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