It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.

Bill Bryson
About This Quote

The idea that you are made up of atoms is not a new one. However, the physicist Richard Feynman popularized this idea in his 1964 book, Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! in which he wrote: "If you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you." This idea is often used to express the idea that we are truly made up of the same stuff as everything else in existence.

Source: A Short History Of Nearly Everything

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