Are We Made of Cells...or Atoms?

Of all the beautiful knowledge we learn in school, two simple statements always fascinated me:

Physics tells us: matter is made up of atoms.

Biology tells us: all living things are made up of cells.

Then comes the slightly awkward question...

What about us?

We are living beings.

We are also matter—we have mass and occupy space.

So, are we made of cells or atoms?

To be honest, this was one of those unanswered questions I carried from my own childhood.

Until, many years later, I finally joined the dots myself.

Cells are the building blocks of living beings.

But cells themselves are made up of molecules.

And molecules are made up of atoms.

Suddenly, two seemingly different subjects from two different textbooks begin telling us the same story—just at different levels.

And it gets even more fascinating.

Look at what makes up most of the mass of our cells:

Oxygen — 65%

Carbon — 18.5%

Hydrogen — 9.5%

Nitrogen — 3.3%

Calcium — 1.5%

Phosphorus — 1%

Potassium, Sodium & Magnesium — 1.2%

The remaining fraction comes from elements such as chlorine, iron, zinc, copper and manganese.

So, zoom out and we are human beings.

Zoom in, and we are organs.

Zoom further in, and we are cells.

Further still, and we find molecules.

And eventually...atoms.

The same atoms that Physics teaches us about are sitting inside every cell of our body.

And below the level of the atom, we enter the strange and fascinating world of quantum physics—where our everyday intuition about matter and space begins to break down.

This is perhaps one of the things we miss while learning the basics.

We become so busy collecting knowledge that we sometimes forget to connect it.

Physics gives us one piece.

Biology gives us another.

Chemistry gives us another.

And somewhere between the chapters, we suddenly realize:

They were never separate pieces of knowledge.

They were different windows looking at the same universe.

And yes, when you think about it, we really are a remarkably tiny arrangement of matter in this enormous universe.

So, if one day you hear that someone has been teleported, vanished into thin air, and mysteriously reappeared somewhere else...don't be too surprised.

We are, after all, just an extraordinarily complicated collection of atoms trying to understand what we are made of.

Perhaps that is the real beauty of learning—not knowing more things, but eventually learning to see how the things we already know fit together.