How much of the human body is made up of stardust,Does atoms age and what is the age of atoms. If an atom or molecule becomes electrically charged by gaining or losing one or more electrons, it becomes an ion. If the atom gains electrons, it has a negative charge. If it loses electrons, it has a positive charge.

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How much of the human body is made up of stardust?Does
atoms age?What is the age of atoms ?
by Mahboob ali khan.
Did you ever wonder where you came from? That is the stuff that’s inside your body like your
bones, organs, muscles…etc. All of these things are made of various molecules and atoms. But
where did these little ingredients come from? And how were they made? The answer to these
questions will take us back to a time long ago when the universe was much different than it is
now. However, the physics was the same.
The early universe expanded after the big bang for only 3 seconds before it cooled to a state
where subatomic particles assembled into atoms. Hydrogen atoms formed first since they are the
simplest type of atom. Hydrogen atoms contain only one proton in its nucleus which makes it
number one on the periodic table of elements. After the universe aged a little (roughly 300
million years) the hydrogen atoms started to clump together under the force of gravity. As these
clumps grew in size, the pressure at the center grew larger. When the temperature reached 15
million degrees F, the pressure caused the hydrogen to fuse their nuclei together. This process is
known as nuclear fusion. The positively charged nuclei naturally repel each other. However
under high temperatures and pressure, the nuclei are moving fast enough to smash together and
fuse. When the two proton nuclei of the hydrogen atoms fuse, they form a nucleus consisting of

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two protons. Some electrons also combine with protons to form neutrons and neutrinos. These
neutrons also bind to the nucleus helping it to remain more stable under the nuclear forces. An
atom with two protons in its nucleus is Helium. That’s why helium is number two on the periodic
table of elements. The fusion process also releases a lot of energy in which some of the hydrogen
mass converts into light energy. This conversion of mass in to energy uses Einstein’s famous
equation: E=mc2.
At this point, our universe has a bunch of large clumps of hydrogen fusing together to create
helium while releasing large amounts of light. This is what we commonly call a star! In fact our
sun is doing this right now as we speak (or read). As a star ages, it then fuses the helium with
hydrogen to form lithium which has three protons in its nucleus. Take a look at the periodic table
to see which number it is. This fusion process continues to create larger and larger nuclei. The
forth, the fifth and all the way up to 26.
This is the general idea but it’s not exactly this easy. We have to remember that this is in fact
nuclear physics that we’re dealing with here. It looks like a pretty simple picture as we just
described but up close it is actually an intricate jigsaw puzzle.
The fusion process doesn’t actually create the elements in order through the periodic table. In
fact, the process jumps around. And some fused nuclei decay down to lower elements that were
skipped over. Fusion also creates neutrons which combine with atoms to create isotopes which
act like atomic cousins. Overall, we can say that a star produces all of the elements up to iron in
the periodic table through the fusion process. The details of this process are fascinating, yet they
deter us from answering the question at hand.
The element with 26 protons in its nucleus is iron. It turns out that this is the last element that is
created. To create higher elements, fusion requires more energy than it produces. We mentioned
earlier that a star glows because the fusing atoms release energy (E=mc2). However, the amount
of energy released becomes smaller and smaller as the atoms grow larger. Eventually at iron,
there is no energy released at all. And for elements beyond iron more energy is need for fusion
than gravitational pressure can provide.
After a star has created enough iron, fusion ceases and the hot burning core begins to cool. Up
until this point the hot core of the star erupting outwards and preventing gravity from collapsing
the star. Now that the star has cooled, the core no longer expands and gravity quickly collapses
the star. The star implodes with enough energy to immediately fuse some of the atoms into
higher elements like Nickel, Krypton, Gold, Uranium,… etc. This quick and violent implosion
releases an enormous amount of energy that explodes the star. This is what we call a supernova!
Astrophysicists are still not exactly certain about the details of how a supernova explodes.
Hopefully you can figure it out someday!
The exploded remains from a supernova travel through out the universe only to someday clump
together with other stardust and give birth to a new star. This is the life of our universe.
Now that we have established that every element in the periodic table aside from hydrogen is
essentially stardust, we have to determine how much of our body is made up of this stardust. If

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we know how many hydrogen atoms are in our body, then we can say that the rest is
stardust. Our body is composed of roughly 7x1027 atoms. That is a lot of atoms! Try writing that
number out on a piece of paper: 7 with 27 zeros behind it. We say roughly because if you pluck a
hair or pick your nose there might be slightly less. Now it turns out that of those billion billion
billion atoms, 4.2x1027 of them are hydrogen. Remember that hydrogen is bigbang dust and not
stardust. This leaves 2.8x1027 atoms of stardust. Thus the amount of stardust atoms in our body is
40%.
Since stardust atoms are the heavier elements, the percentage of star mass in our body is much
more impressive. Most of the hydrogen in our body floats around in the form of water. The
human body is about 60% water and hydrogen only accounts for 11% of that water mass. Even
though water consists of two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen, hydrogen has much less mass.
We can conclude that 93% of the mass in our body is stardust. Just think, long ago someone may
have wished upon a star that you are made of.
QUESTION:
Are we able to determine the age of an atom?
ANSWER from Bruce Thompson on August 26, 2000:Atoms are being created all the time
inside stars and then expelled into theuniverse, either in supernova explosions, or as solar winds
(our Sun does itall the time), so putting an age on individual atoms is not possible.
The infant universe was made up of hydrogen and a bit of helium, and all theelements on the
periodic table that are heavier than hydrogen and helium werecreated inside stars from that base
hydrogen. Astronomers call those heavierelements "metals".
The base atoms are therefore as old as the universe.
ANSWER from Jorge Brown Segui on August 26, 2000:There is no way to "measure" the age of
an individual atom. We can only infer when it was made. The only atoms we know the "age"
for sure are H,He, deuterium, tritium and lithium. These are as old as the universe (we still don't
know how old the universe is. Some say 12 billion years, others11, 13 billion years.) It depends
on the cosmological constant (Hubble Constant). This determines how fast the universe
expands, but we are not able to measure the expansion accurately enough to give the answer.
Moreover, there are some indications that the Hubble Constant may vary its expansion rate.
Presently, there is some debate on the area because some stars are older than the universe. This
points to some revisions on the models (particularly on the "Standard Model" that describes how
gravity, electromagnetism, weak force (radioactivity) and strong force (how protons are packed
together inside the atomic nucleus) merge at the very first moments of the Big Bang.

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Under Observation - Restless Atoms Cause
Materials to Age
Atoms have the habit of jumping through solids - a practice that physicists have recently been
able to follow for the first time using a brand new method. This scientific advance was made
possible thanks to the utilisation of cutting-edge X-ray sources, known as electron synchrotrons.
The detailed findings of the project, backed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, were recently
published in the prestigious journal NATURE MATERIALS. The work unlocks new potential
for the study of material ageing processes at the atomic level.
To the naked eye, a wedding ring shows no traces of its "internal unrest". At the
atomic level, however, it's a stormy affair, with billions of atoms changing position
every second

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Now and then, things can get pretty "wild" in solids. For example, billions of atoms in a gold
ring can shift position every second. However, it is not just ordinary people who cannot see the
atoms jumping around - physicists too have long been unable to witness this process for
themselves. However, there is one very good reason in particular why scientists should want to
change all that. The restlessness of atoms is responsible for ageing, and therefore the loss of
specific material properties.
Scientific understanding of atomic movement has now been significantly enhanced. A team of
researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna have pioneered a method to
directly track atoms as they jump through solids. To achieve this breakthrough, the team applied
state-of-the-art technology in the form of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in
Grenoble, France, which creates special X-rays of exceptional intensity and quality. These X-
rays - which can at present only be generated at three research facilities worldwide - allowed the
researchers to observe the movement of atoms in a copper/gold alloy.
Twice the Jump Rate
The scientists discovered how far and in what directions atoms jump, and how this movement is
affected by temperature. Investigations have shown that, at a temperature of 270 degrees Celsius,
atoms change position in the crystal lattice about once per hour. But that's not all. If we increase
the temperature by just 10 degrees Celsius, the jump rate of the atoms doubles. And, of course,
the same happens in reverse - if the temperature drops by 10 degrees, the atoms only jump half
as often."
In the future, the recently accomplished experiment will serve as a basis for the measurement of
atomic movement in numerous, technically important metallic systems. This is an important first
step in understanding the ageing processes of materials, which is due to the internal unrest of
atoms. For example, to ensure that a car engine does not wear and that a computer can function
properly, foreign atoms need to be allocated to specific positions under controlled production
conditions, usually at high temperatures. Unfortunately, these atoms also tend to leave their
"allocated" positions quickly when exposed to high temperatures and, as a result, the materials
lose their desired properties.
The European X-ray Laser is to be used for applications well beyond the investigation of
materials. It will also be a unique tool in the study of structures in vital substances such as
proteins. Although the use of "coherent" X-rays is still in its infancy, the FWF-supported project
has already taken an important step towards their universal application - placing Austrian
scientists at the forefront of scientific progress.