About two decades ago, I was taking the train home with a friend who looked at me, and asked a very direct question. He said, "Steve, am I just a bag of chemicals?" This friend was at the start of his studies at Medical School, so it is a reasonable thing to wonder. Actually, it is a reasonable thing for any one of us to wonder. His question struck me so hard that it never really left my brain.
What am I? There are many ways to answer this philosophical question, but let us take a scientific approach.
What am I? There are many ways to answer this philosophical question, but let us take a scientific approach.
The universe is composed of indivisible building blocks. An electron is one example of such a building block, and physicists today seek to find other yet unknown examples of such particles. All matter in the universe is composed of atoms, which are composed of the aforementioned subatomic particles. The over one hundred known elements (kinds of atoms) all originate in stars, where extremely high energy collisions occur between atoms. These collisions cause atoms to fuse together to form bigger ones in a nuclear process known as fusion.
Ninety nine percent of the fusion reactions in stars involve hydrogen and helium. But, if not for the remaining 1% of collisions, which fill in the periodic table, there would of course be no carbon, and then, no organic matter, and no life. Life is an unlikely and bewildering occurrence in so many ways.
Chemicals are combinations of atoms that have bonded together. While there are only about one hundred known elements, there are millions of known chemicals, each with specific properties.
A person is an organism, which is composed of many systems, which are collections of organs, made up of tissues, which consist of cells. The biological building blocks of a person are cells. While cells are living matter, they are matter just the same; cells are made up of the atoms, whose origins lie not in the heavens, but in the stars. I can thus state with no ounce of trepidation that I am composed entirely of atoms that were once upon a time within a star. What a privilege it is to be alive at a time in history when I get to know that.
