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| The human body, encircled depicting the interconnectivity between the human body and the natural environment |
In my last post I attempted to
give you the elemental composition of the human body and how it is
interconnected with the natural environment. Let me say again that the natural
environment is made up of various elements which the human body has to ingest
and assimilate to sustain material life. In so far as the human body ingests
and assimilates the elements life is sustained. The building blocks of elements
are atoms. The elements themselves are flung from stars.
When an atom of one element
combines with the atom of another element a molecule is formed (atoms of the
same element can combine to form a molecule), and molecules form cell, and
cells form tissue, and tissues form organ, and the organs the human body. Atom
the building block of chemistry, is replaced every year by 98% in the human
body. Our bodies take in new atoms daily: from the pizza you eat; from the beer
you drink; from the fufu and abɛ ŋkwan (fufu is cassava cooked and pounded into
a paste, and it goes with abɛ ŋkwan, a soup with the palm fruit as its main
ingredient- it is a popular meal in Ghana) you eat etc.
In this post I intend going
further to attempt to determine the number of atoms there are in the human body
to further establish the interconnectivity between man and the natural environment.
Looking at it more significantly, if man because of this interconnectedness,
makes the elements which forms the natural environment dirty, they should ingest
and assimilate dirty elements.
A human body of 70 kg is made up 7*10²⁷ atoms or an estimated
7 octillion atoms (7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) or 7 billion,
billion, billion. My word, those
were twenty seven zeros! I have tried to break the figure down to make it
graspable.
Of the 7*10²⁷ atoms, three
elements in the human body take up 99%. The three elements are hydrogen, oxygen
and carbon; the others are trace elements. Hydrogen takes up of 2/3, oxygen 1/4
and carbon 1/10.
Clearly, the one thing you, as a
human being, have in common with the natural environment is atom. Atom derived
from the elements in the natural environment- air, water and soil. Plants and
animals which you and I feed on derive their atoms from the natural
environment. So directly or indirectly or both, we as humans get our atoms from
the natural environment.
In view of the foregoing, it
stands to reason that if we humans as managers of the natural environment, fail
to keep the natural environment clean, stable and balanced, we should in effect
compromise the stability in our own bodies, for that matter our minds. Then a
vicious circle should emerge, as indeed is the case: from an unstable man to an
unstable natural environment and vice versa. An example, through human
activities, there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, especially
urban areas. The result is that humans are not getting pure air to inhale for proper
metabolism, a key mechanism to our wellbeing.
Reference:
http://education.jlab.org/qa/mathatom_04.html
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