“Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organism on it’s way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms- up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested- probably one belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you can name. (The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it takes the atoms some decades to become thoroughly redistributed; however much you may wish it, you are not yet one with Elvis Presley.)”
—
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
I am loving on this book. Hard.
Another thing that tripped me out a little:
This is false:
“Electrons are not like orbiting planets at all, but more like blades of a spinning fan, managing to fill every bit of space in the orbit simultaneously (but with the crucial difference that the blades of a fan only seem to be everywhere at once; electrons are.”
Say whattt
June 29, 2011, 11:31pm Comments
