I am a stickler for using science to prove abstract thoughts and ideas.

While sitting around contemplating New Years, an idea came to me; so we begin with a few facts and a little math...

-Researchers have estimated and agreed that there are between 50-100 trillion cells in the human body. We will go with the high-ball number...

-It takes between 12-24 hours for a cell to divide in a human. Again, we will assume the highest number...

-The average human goes through around 10,000 trillion cell divisions in a lifetime(!).

-Let's say an average human lives 80 years.

-24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year, 80 years... that is 700,800 hours in our hypothetical human's lifetime. (Or 2,522,880,000 seconds. Wait... That's it? We only get 2.5 billion seconds if we live to see 80? How many seconds have passed since you've been on ATS?)

-With 10,000 trillion cell divisions in a lifetime, and 2,522,880,000 seconds in a human life, that would mean that your body goes through 3,963,723.99 cell divisions every second!

-Now... if you have 3,963,723.99 cell divisions per second, and you have 100 trillion cells, it would take you 25,228,800.05 seconds to reproduce the total number of cells in your body. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? That breaks down to 7,008 hours, or only 292 days!

Actually, if our person lives to 80 years old, he/she would actually reproduce enough cells to equal the number in their body exactly 100 times. (Literally, 100.0000000007424)

Now granted, certain cells in your body simply stop reproducing after they reach maturity, so you will never actually rebuild every cell in your body (yet anyways, science is getting there)...

But it still boggles the mind to know that even though we have 100^12 cells in our body... our body can duplicate that many cells in only 292 days. Talk about a machine!

So while your New Years resolution might be to be a new person, remember, maybe you already are .

Happy New Years ATS.

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Someone needs a hug...

Hah.

Nice facts concluding in a nice fact !

you're never completely new now aren't ya? eh?