so if every molecule that has ever existed STILL exists...we're all mixing with molecules of everyone who has ever existed...Jesus, Hitler, Mao, Mother Terese...oops...there went the boner, sorry:blushing::blushing:
I think I was going somewhere deep there but i got derailed...
sorry,
g
You're almost right - molecules get made and destroyed all the time, fire re-arranges molecules, as do most chemical processes, so the arrangement of the molecules are ever changing.
If you ignore radioactivity, then the atoms are what stay the same, mixing and matching into different molecules, but never changing.
Of course you can't ignore radioactivity, that is pure madness, so really, what stays the same are the quarks and leptons that make up our atoms that make up our molecules. Although that's not strictly true either - thanks to Einstein we know that you actually CAN create and destroy matter, or rather, you can interchange energy and matter via the equation e=mc^2. So the matter you are made or could have been energy, and in fact, it definitely was, either at the moment of the big bang, or some time more recent.
So you DEFINITELY can't say the same molecules always exit, just the act of breathing is re-arranging molecules! You can sorta say that on the surface of the earth atoms are mostly preserved, but that ignores natural radioactive decay in the rocks all around us, and of course our meddling with nuclear power and weapons.
What you CAN say is that the atoms that make up our body were created in stars! At the moment of the big bang the only atoms were isotopes of Hydrogen & Helium, which stars turn into the elements we need like carbon, iron, and oxygen, before exploding as supernovae and creating the heavy elements we need too!
So - we might no have Hitler's molecules, but we are all made of star stuff
B.
