The narrative of “The creation of Adam” never changes from time to time.

For centuries our old man told us that we – human are molded from soil (some says clay), and then God put the soul into our flesh.

In science, we know that everything – every matter in the universe are made from tiny particles called atoms. Let’s say that every part of human body originated from these magic soil, and these magic soil that created human race are also made from atoms.

So, How old are you exactly? How old are the soil that made us?

96 percent of human body is made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms. The precise number of the composition: 65% Oxygen, 18.6% Carbon, 9.7% Hydrogen, and 3.2 % Nitrogen.

As we know, the universe was born from a spectacular event called big bang (that’s what most of us believe). According to the big bang theory, the entire universe emerged from a single point in the middle of nothingness. A very small dot that exploded and started everything. This event occurred around 13.8 billion years ago.

Right after the big bang, there’s no fundamental force that can interact with the ancient universe particles. Why? Because it’s too hot. Like super hot. All the particles jiggle here and there with so much energy that they cannot interact with each other. Few seconds (yes, SECONDS) after the big bang, the particle can interact with each other, thanks to strong nuclear force. Strong nuclear force binds protons and neutrons and form something what we called atomic nucleus. That’s the birth of hydrogen and helium.

Meanwhile, the universe keeps expanding and it will cool as it expands.

At some point, after around 100 – 500 million years later, the temperature of the universe reaches a point where the other fundamental force of nature can interact with the ancient particles; mostly hydrogen and helium. At this time, the first star was born. The first star are mainly formed from fusion thermonuclear reaction which combined four hydrogen atoms to form a helium nuclei at the center of the star.

Each stars have different life phase. It depends on the star’s initial mass. For super massive stars, when the core runs out of hydrogen as it’s fuel, these stars will fuse helium into carbon. However after the helium is gone, their mass is enough to fuse carbon into heavier elements such as oxygen, then oxygen fuse into silicon. For the last part, silicon will fuse into iron.

At the end of star’s life, the core of the star may collapse and explode. This explosion called supernova. Supernova may expel much, if not all, of the material away from the star. The beautiful thing about supernova is, it can be the new beginning for other celestial objects. The heavy elements from supernova may attract each other and after some period of time creating planets and other object.

Now, it is clear where do the particles that made us come from. The origin of our magic soil. So, again, how old are we exactly? From the explanation above, our particles are almost 13 billion years old.

We are 13 billion years old creatures.

Footnote: back on another episode of my biophysics assignment. This entry is my answer for question numero uno: How long have the atoms in your body existed?