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; f...
Come for a dose of inspiration from some of the greatest (and at times oddest) minds of history. The table is set. Come eat.