The $6,000,000 Man
So I know a couple of weeks ago I told you about a speech my professor gave us on our last day of class and I actually recorded it on my phone. I was listening to it last night and thought about the story he was telling before he got to the part that I last blogged about. After thinking, I just knew I could probably find it on the internet to share with you. Well I did and this is it.The $6,000,000 Man.
Well, time passes (such as it does). It was again my father’s birthday and time for another humorous reminder of the annual event. I was perusing the birthday cards in a local department store when I came across a very cute card:
“According to biochemists, the materials that make up the human body are worth only 97 cents.” (Hallmark Greeting Card Co.) An underestimation, I thought.
With this card in mind, I toyed with the idea of calculating just how much the average human body is worth. So I and a friend (who was interested in biochemistry) sat down to figure out just how much a human body could fetch on the fair market exchange. Using a biochemical supply catalog, we investigated the price of the various chemicals and came up with some shocking results. Human DNA was $770 per gram. Hemoglobin was $3 a gram. Insulin was $48 per gram. Follicle-stimulating hormone (or FSH) was relatively expensive (about $4,900,000 per gram). A righteous amount of bucks, we concluded.
We averaged all the chemicals per gram (dry weight) of a human being, arriving at $250.25 per gram. Human beings are approximately 70% water, so we calculated my dry weight as 24,545 g. Next we calculated how much the average human body was worth. The final amount was most gratifying: $6,142,386.30. Not bad, I concluded gleefully. I’m a six million dollar man, and I can’t even run 60 miles per hour.
One must here draw a balance between a human being and a bunch of chemicals from a supply catalog. If it were possible to purchase these chemicals, you would not purchase a human being, but merely an assembly of molecules. But why the discrepancy between the 97 cent figure and the calculated one? The answer is easy. By paying for thevarious proteins and hormones, one is paying for those chemicals which are high up in the genetic ladder, while carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and water are relatively cheap and easy to come by. For example, proteins are long folded chains of amino acids which are commercially available for anywhere between $3 and $12,000 per gram. However, the smaller molecular weight amino acids are somewhere around 30 cents a gram. Thus we see a cost difference in the size and complexity of the chemicals.
As we learn in science courses at a very young age, cells form tissues, tissues form organs, and organs form systems. As we progress we learn that the cell itself is made up of smaller units called organelles. One of the organelles is ribosome. The cost of assembling DNA and proteins from ribosomes is phenomenal. To synthesize a human being from organelles is prohibitively expensive, in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Next we must form cells, and then tissues. Organs must then be created and then the organs formed into systems and finally into a living, breathing human being. The cost at each step becomes progressively higher as the complexity of the process increases. An incomprehensible task, to say the least. Thus the naked truth faces us, and we quickly realize that each human being is priceless.
by Gerry Marangoni
Change is Good
For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.~Benjamin Button
Never Give Up
I'm honestly out of words… I'm not sure if it is my lack of sleep or the fact that I just have so much Mammalian Phys and Biochem packed in this brain that it is impossible for me to converse on a normal level. If you're in the process of finals, as I am, then I am sure you totally understand! Regardless of whether your having finals or not, I think anyone can relate to this quote in some aspect of their life.
I LOVE YOU ALL! Don't ever take "no" for an answer!! HAPPY TUESDAY!
Listening to: Titanium - David Guetta feat. Sia
Study study study
I'm studying in my Mammalian book and going through the lecture slides along with it and come across this… need I say more? ha Dr. Wit is too funny!
Sick days are not Vacation days
Listening to: Lost - Michael Buble
Quote of the Night: The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation. ~ Corrie Ten Boom
Last Day of Class
Well today was our last day of classes and was a little bittersweet. This semester was Dr. Wit's last semester to teach and today was his last day. He is retiring and has been a professor at Auburn University for a long time. He is honestly one of the smartest, most respectable men I have ever met in my life. Mammalian was definitely a very hard class but you know as a student, I know Dr. Wit was just trying to stretch us to our full potential which is exactly what we need in preparation for Pharmacy School. I am so thankful and honored to have been able to be in his last class and learn from him. He gave a speech in class today about the measurement of human life and our self worth. He told us that in our age we measure ourselves two different ways. One way was performance, we tend to measure our self worth by how well we are doing in class and what grades we are making. He explained that this is a slippery slope because you will never be satisfied. Even if you make A's, you will then want to be the person with the highest A and so on. The second way of measuring our self worth is by appearance. If we look good then we are better and will get somewhere and of course he said he was sorry to break it to us but our looks will fade, we will get wrinkles and we won't stay this way forever. He went on to say that our self worth was neither of those things but by who we are and who we are becoming. He said that he thinks each one of us as a unique creation that has a self worth of well over $6 billion and that we are very special. I was seriously moved to tears. Too bad I couldn't have heard this at the beginning of the semester. It was just so crazy that while he was saying all of this, I was thinking "Oh my gosh! This is exactly why I have felt this way the whole semester." All semester I have measured my self worth by my grades. My grades have not been great at all and it's almost immediately that I start thinking about shopping or getting my hair done or what do I need to do to change my body, weight, hair color, clothes, makeup, etc. I wasn't making the grades and it made my self confidence so low that I was trying to find a way too "look" better so I would "feel" better about myself. Dr. Wit could not have possibly described me and my emotions this semester anymore to a T than that. It hit me driving home that this Nike quote I found a few days ago stated the same thing and everything started to make sense. This semester has been rough on me and I have had many ups and downs but I would not take any of it back because of what I have learned through it all. The down times keep you grounded and make you appreciate the ups and I would hate to think differently. So lesson of the day??? All we can do is our best, measure yourself by who you are and who you are becoming and not by numbers or looks. If you are doing your best in everything, you will reach your goal and be successful. I know it's a hard concept when those things make you feel so good about yourself but like Audrey Hepburn says "Happy girls are the prettiest girls." If we have the confidence and love who we are and who we are becoming, that will do wonders on our looks and confidence will definitely help with our grades! We got this! Finals are right around the corner and I am ready to take the challenge! *Hope you all have a blessed week*
Listening to: Use Somebody - Laura Jansen
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