The Body

01How much is a human worth in raw materials?

In "The Body: A Guide for Occupants," Bill Bryson takes us on a fascinating journey through the human body, even breaking down the cost of the raw materials needed to build a human. According to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), we're made up of fifty-nine elements. Six of these - carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus - make up 99.1% of us. The rest, including molybdenum, vanadium, manganese, tin, and copper, are needed in much smaller amounts, some only in parts per million or billion. Oxygen is the most abundant element in us, making up 61% of our body. Even though it's a gas, it doesn't make us light and airy like a balloon. That's because it teams up with hydrogen (which makes up another 10% of us) to form water. And if you've ever tried to lift a full bucket of water or walked around in soaking wet clothes, you'll know that water is quite heavy. The cost of these elements can vary. Oxygen and hydrogen, despite being the most abundant, are pretty cheap. All the oxygen in your body would cost around $14, while the hydrogen would cost a bit over $26. Nitrogen, which makes up 2.6% of you, is even cheaper at 40 cents for a body's worth. But the cost goes up when we consider other elements. For example, the carbon in your body, which you need about thirty pounds of, would cost you $69,550. Other elements like calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, though needed in smaller amounts, would cost an extra $73,800. Some elements, like thorium, are super expensive per gram (over $3,000), but since they make up such a tiny part of your body, a body's worth would only cost thirty-three cents. Some elements, like samarium, which makes up 0.000000007% of your body, are so tiny that they're not even worth charging for. Out of the fifty-nine elements in the human body, twenty-four are considered essential, meaning we can't survive without them. The rest are a mixed bag. Some are good for us, some might be good but we're not sure how, some are neutral, and a few are bad for us. According to the RSC, if we were to build a human being from scratch using these elements, using actor Benedict Cumberbatch as a model, it would cost a precise $151,578.46. This doesn't include labor or sales tax, which would increase the cost further. But here's the thing: even if we had all the necessary elements and the money to buy them, we still wouldn't be able to create a human being. Even if we gathered all the smartest people in the world and gave them all the knowledge we have, they wouldn't be able to create a single living cell, let alone a human being. To give you an idea of how complex the human body is, consider this: it takes 7 octillion (that's 7 followed by 27 zeros) atoms to make a human being. This mind-boggling number just goes to show the incredible complexity and wonder of the human body.