Harold J. Morowitz, a biochemist as Yale received a humorous
birthday card form his daughter. It
read, “The materials that make up the human body are worth only 98 cents.” Surprised, he reached for a supply company’s
catalogue to look up prices.
It turned out that the human body was more like the Six
Million Dollar Man. Among the body’s constituents,
enzymes, acids etc., was a follicle-stimulating hormone worth $8 million a
gram. Then came the hormone that
stimulated milk production in the breast glands, $17.5 million a gram.
Calculating the percentage of each chemical in the composition
of a human body, Morowitz arrived at $245.54 as the average value per gram in
the human being.
He then weighed himself, 168 pounds or 79.364 grams. Since a man is 68% water, his dry weight was
24,436 grams. Multiplying that by $245.54
came to $6,000,015.44. An enormous
upgrade from the 98 cent valuation!
“I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
–Psalms 139:14
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