What is the collective weight of DNA?

Factual Questions
1

Given:
[ul]
[li]That everything that is alive has DNA[/li][li]That the oldest known DNA found has been some 800,000 years old[/li][li]That most of the things that lived in the last 800,000 years are dead as of this moment[/li][/ul]

How much of the dust and dirt beneath our feet is DNA by volume and weight?

2

Very little. DNA degrades quite quickly upon death.

3

What portion of our bodies is DNA? I weight 230 lbs. What does my DNA weigh?

4

I think a good percentage of the organic portions of soil probably had been DNA at one time or another. Probably also a protein, and cellulose, and almost any other biological compound. given how many times the elements have been recycled.

5

Let’s see. Using numbers from Wikipedia (so you might want to take them with a grain of salt):[ul][]There are approximately ten trillion (10[sup]13[/sup]) cells in the human body.[]A single human cell, assuming it’s not reproducing at that moment, contains about 6.5 picograms of DNA (a little more if you’re female, a little less if you’re male.)[*]Therefore, your body contains about 65 grams of DNA molecules, or about 2.3 ounces.[/ul]This is only an estimate, of course. The number of cells in your body might be larger or smaller than 10 trillion, not all your cells contain DNA, and some fraction of your cells are reproducing at any given time. Still, I wouldn’t expect that the number would be less than about 5 grams or more than about 500 grams.

6

Excellent! Now all we need is a head count. I’m off to count everything that ever lived! I’ll be back…um…later.

7

[quote=“MikeS, post:5, topic:551976”]

Let’s see. Using numbers from Wikipedia (so you might want to take them with a grain of salt):[ul][li]There are approximately ten trillion (10[sup]13[/sup]) cells in the human body.[]A single human cell, assuming it’s not reproducing at that moment, contains about 6.5 picograms of DNA (a little more if you’re female, a little less if you’re male.)[]Therefore, your body contains about 65 grams of DNA molecules, or about 2.3 ounces.[/ul]This is only an estimate, of course. The number of cells in your body might be larger or smaller than 10 trillion, not all your cells contain DNA, and some fraction of your cells are reproducing at any given time. Still, I wouldn’t expect that the number would be less than about 5 grams or more than about 500 grams.[/li][/QUOTE]

I agree you have to take that wikipedia information with a grain of salt.

Its hard to say what constitutes the average after all. Am I too think that a woman half my weight has half my dna? Probably not, as I’ll have more blood cells and muscle cells are going to be larger in volume.

Your ball park figure satisfies my curiosity. Thanks.