Chemistry gives most of the answers
While researching a new book, Bill Bryson takes a trip through cyberspace to try to answer a childhood question – and discovers that chemistry is really quite exciting
Years ago – decades actually – when I was a junior high school student in Des Moines, US, I remember being taught by a science teacher that all the chemicals needed to make a human body could be bought in a hardware store for a few dollars. I don’t remember the actual sum. It could have been $2.97 or $5 or $13.50, but it was very little even in 1960s money and I remember being astounded at the thought that you could make a slouched and pimply thing such as me for practically nothing. It was such a spectacularly humbling revelation that it has stayed with me all these years.
The question is: was it true? Are we really worth so little?
Recently, for a new book I am working on, I decided to try to answer that question, and I began, as we all do nowadays, with a hunt through the cyber universe.
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