19/08/2025
Atoms in the human body — especially hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen — were formed long before Earth even existed.
The hydrogen atoms in your body likely originated during the Big Bang, over 13.8 billion years ago, making them the oldest.
Heavier elements, such as carbon and iron, were created later in the cores of dying stars and dispersed throughout the universe via supernova explosions — a process often summarized as “we are made of star stuff,” a concept famously articulated by Carl Sagan.
The body is composed of atoms that cycle constantly through nature — in air, water, food, and biological systems.
While the structure of your body is unique to you, the atoms that compose it have been parts of countless other organisms, minerals, and molecules before forming you.
After death, they will once again return to the environment and be reused.
Thus, humans aren't permanent owners of atoms; we are temporary configurations — the latest assembly, as the image states.
This concept is central to material continuity in biology and the conservation of matter in physics.
