DO ATOMS LAST FOREVER

Atoms are the building blocks of matter. They quite literally make our universe what it is. Every atom in your body is billions of years old. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe and a major feature of your body, was produced in the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. When we die, our bodies do not turn into nothing: Rather, they are broken down into their constituent parts and recycled into the ecosystem. In short, our atoms go on long after we are gone. In death, the collection of atoms of which you are composed ( a universe within the universe) are repurposed. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. It has been suggested some of these atoms probably once belonged to Shakespeare... and any other historical figure you care to name. So we are all reincarnations, though short lived ones. When we die our atoms will disassemble and move on to find new uses elsewhere, as part of a leaf or possibly another person. In the end atoms are not eternal. Eventually, protons will decay into short lived subatomic particles in 100 nonillion years.