ModernArtist25 Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 so if 65% of the human body is made of oxygen (according to wiki), does this mean that if humans die, oxygen is dispersed in the air and we all breath dead people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 so if 65% of the human body is made of oxygen (according to wiki), does this mean that if humans die, oxygen is dispersed in the air and we all breath dead people? Oxygen will get bound up in other compounds, but yes. Some of the air you breathe was part of a corpse, some was breathed by dead people, and water you drink is recycled dinosaur pee. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringJunky Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 so if 65% of the human body is made of oxygen (according to wiki), does this mean that if humans die, oxygen is dispersed in the air and we all breath dead people? Worse than that: the soil that you get your food from is made from countless dead bodies. Life feeds on death to live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta1212 Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Every part of you body used to be part of something dead, human or otherwise. On the molecular level, you're a Frankenstein's monster of recycled parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 We are stardust. It's beautiful the way the universe (aka all of us and all things) recycles itself. An author (Eckert Tolle?) wrote: "We are the universe expressing itself as a human being for a while." I tend to agree. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModernArtist25 Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 Can elements like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc. that make up the human body can be seen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Yes, we can: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-microscope-can-see-down-to-individual-atoms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModernArtist25 Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 Ooh i see, but only with a super microscope lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Well, technically speaking, you see those elements any time you look at any thing. Your question regarding if we can see them could easily be answered by saying those elements are ALL we see (though that's more poetic than pedantic). It's only if you wish to look at single atoms that you need specially equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModernArtist25 Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 Well i sure cant see oxygen though what we breath, it is colorless Do you mean we "see" them because we know that they exist? For example, if I believe in demons and angels, I will "see" them too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 You can't see them with your eyes, obviously. But there are many instruments which allow you to measure it. What iNow mentions is that we are able to see the macrostructures containing the elements. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 ^ correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzwood Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 You can also condense the gases into liquids. You can easily see those. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmydasaint Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 We are stardust. It's beautiful the way the universe (aka all of us and all things) recycles itself. An author (Eckert Tolle?) wrote: "We are the universe expressing itself as a human being for a while." I tend to agree. Pretty spiritual stuff here iNow. That is a nice quote from the author. Believe it or not, this was the thing that absolutely hooked me into biology as a teenager. It was the recycling of all matter throughout the biosphere. It was stunning and awesome. On a general note, are there estimates of how many atoms we have that are recycled from humans of old, or about how quickly the body recycles its cells? I seem to remember a figure of 7 years to recycle all body cells (except for brain cells?)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimreepr Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 On a general note, are there estimates of how many atoms we have that are recycled from humans of old, or about how quickly the body recycles its cells? I seem to remember a figure of 7 years to recycle all body cells (except for brain cells?)? It's far quicker than that... https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-for-most-of-the-atoms-in-your-body-to-be-replaced-by-others In about a year every atom in your body would have been exchanged. Not a single atom in your body resides there forever and there is a 100% chance that 1000s of other humans through history held some of the same atoms that you currently hold in your body. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phi for All Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Well i sure cant see oxygen though what we breath, it is colorless Do you mean we "see" them because we know that they exist? For example, if I believe in demons and angels, I will "see" them too... Have you ever seen an air cannon blow a smoke ring? Study the physics of a toroidal vortex to "see" how oxygen and nitrogen react as a fluid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmydasaint Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Pretty spiritual stuff here iNow. That is a nice quote from the author. Believe it or not, this was the thing that absolutely hooked me into biology as a teenager. It was the recycling of all matter throughout the biosphere. It was stunning and awesome. On a general note, are there estimates of how many atoms we have that are recycled from humans of old, or about how quickly the body recycles its cells? I seem to remember a figure of 7 years to recycle all body cells (except for brain cells?)? Sorry about this but your citation referenced a person who did not write was stated. Do you have a different citation please? This data was first pointed out by Dr. Paul C. Aebersold in 1953 in a landmark paper he presented to the Smithsonian Institute, “Radioisotopes - New keys to knowledge” http://www.archive.org/stream/an... I looked up the original 1953 paper and must have missed all these facts. Aebersold only mentioned applications of radioisotopic iodine etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Pretty spiritual stuff here iNow.Atheists are hardly immune from awe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensei Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) Non-existence after death is pretty good reason to feel awe. So everybody, especially atheists the most interested, should hard work on how to live as long as possible/forever. Otherwise it's just wasting your precious time here. Edited August 20, 2016 by Sensei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 On a general note, are there estimates of how many atoms we have that are recycled from humans of old, or about how quickly the body recycles its cells?Essentially all of the atoms in our body are recycled, but how many times those atoms were in another human in years past depends on lots of factors: http://gawker.com/5987071/are-there-atoms-of-abraham-lincoln-in-my-body-right-now As for how often cells in the body are replaced, that depends, too. This time, on the type of cell / where in the body we happen to be looking: http://www.livescience.com/33179-does-human-body-replace-cells-seven-years.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensei Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) Well i sure cant see oxygen though what we breath, it is colorless We can see it, in some circumstances. Air from breath has temperature of body or so. But if environment has significantly lower temperature, we can see something like this: http://media.gettyimages.com/videos/caribou-with-visible-breath-in-cold-weather-looking-around-on-rocks-video-id290-13 Google for "Frosty breath effect","Cold breath effect". After ionization normally colorless gases have different colors (spectral lines) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Gase-in-Entladungsroehren.jpg Edited August 20, 2016 by Sensei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringJunky Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) So everybody, especially atheists the most interested, should hard work on how to live as long as possible/forever. Otherwise it's just wasting your precious time here. What you gonna do with forever? Any idea how long that is? Essentially all of the atoms in our body are recycled, but how many times those atoms were in another human in years past depends on lots of factors: http://gawker.com/5987071/are-there-atoms-of-abraham-lincoln-in-my-body-right-now As for how often cells in the body are replaced, that depends, too. This time, on the type of cell / where in the body we happen to be looking: http://www.livescience.com/33179-does-human-body-replace-cells-seven-years.html Except the brain... or some parts of it anyway. Edited August 20, 2016 by StringJunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 The brain too is made of atoms and their constituent parts, and those parts all came from somewhere else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringJunky Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) The brain too is made of atoms and their constituent parts, and those parts all came from somewhere else Sorry. I read it wrong. Edited August 20, 2016 by StringJunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 No apology needed. There is something devastatingly beautiful about this topic, though. Parts of the first dinosaur, the first fish, the first plant, the first organism, organelle, and even orangutan...making me me and you you... right now. There's probably also bits of Hitlers poop and other unsavory things, but I prefer to focus on the former and that makes me smile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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