You might know that H20 is the chemical formula for water , but what about the chemistry of you ? Dr Joe Hanson , a science writer and biologist based in Austin , Texas , pondered this very question and now has calculated what the human body is in terms of chemical elements . He revealed that a 'human molecule ' might contain 375 million atoms of hydrogen , 132 million atoms of oxygen and 85 million atoms of carbon . By comparison , this human molecule contains just one atom of cobalt and three molecules of the metal molybdenum . When written out in full , the human molecule would read : Co1 Mo3 Se4 Cr7 F13 Mn13 I14 Cu76 Zn2,110 Fe2,680 Si38,600 Mg40,000 Cl127,000 K177,000 Na183,000 S206,000 P1,020,000 Ca1,500,000 N6,430,000 C85,700,000 O132,000,000 H375,000,000 . The full list of elements that Dr Hanson says would be found in a human molecule if such a thing existed - each set of letters represent a chemical element and the numbers are the proporation of atoms in each 'molecule ' Dr Hanson claims his formula , however , only represents the chemical make up of the human body at birth . Life on Earth may have been kickstarted by a series of chemical reactions triggered by two simple but poisonous compounds that were plentiful on our planet four billion years ago . Chemists have found it is possible to create the three main molecular building blocks of life - DNA , proteins and lipids - from hydrogen cyanide , hydrogen sulphide and ultraviolet light . Their findings suggest that the basic components for biological cells could have all occurred simultaneously in primordial ponds and streams , coming together to form the first cells . This suggests that life may well have first emerged here on Earth - out of a toxic soup of poisonous gas - rather than being carried to our planet by a comet or meteorite from outer space . But the researchers behind the new study say that meteorite impacts probably still played a key role in giving life a first leg up on the ladder towards existence . They claim that meteorite impacts around four billion years ago - known as the Late Heavy Bombardment - could have carried with them carbon rich material that reacted with nitrogen in the air to produce an abundance of hydrogen cyanide . This poisonous gas could then have dissolved in water and undergone a series of chemical reactions , along with hydrogen sulphide , driven by ultraviolet light . Over our lifetimes the proportions of these elements change as age and we pick up traces of other elements like heavy metals and gold . Dr Hanson said : 'Out of 98 naturally occurring elements , just over 30 are known to be essential to some form of life on Earth . 'In ancient times scholars believed everything in the universe was made from just four elements - earth , water , fire and air . 'Today we know it is a little more complicated than that . Living things are made up of cells , cells are made up of molecules and molecules are made up of atoms . 'But that old idea turns out to be sort of right . 'Altogether , 97 % of the mass all living matter is made of just four chemical elements . ' Dr Hanson , who created the video for the It 's Okay to be Smart PBS channel on YouTube , also calculated that the average human body has the equivalent of 16kg ( 35lbs ) of carbon in it and enough oxygen to fill a volume equivalent to 6 elephants . He said the human body also contained enough hydrogen to fill the volume of a blue whale and the same amount of nitrogen as is found in 400 litres of urine . But the human body may also be a source of revenue for those who think it is worth the effort . If the average person was to cut off all their tails and toenails , they could extract a nugget of gold worth around a tenth of a US cent ( one sixteenth of a penny ) , according to Dr Hanson . He said : 'The average adult contains detectable amounts of 60 elements , mostly just traces of our diet and environment that have built up over time . If you isolated all of the elements in your body into their pure form , the ingredients for one life would fetch around one to two thousands dollars on the open market . 'Of course you ca n't really do that , but it gives us another way to look at life . ' Biologist Dr Joe Hanson has worked out what the human body would look like as a chemical formula ( above ) The average adult human body contains around 16kg ( 35lbs ) of carbon . Pictured is a lump of carbon-rich coal .
Dr Joe brown is a science writer and biologist based in Austin , Texas . He calculated what a hypothetical single ' human body ' might look like . It would contain 375 million hydrogen atoms and 85 million oxygen atoms . He also calculated that all the chemical elements in the human body would be worth upto $ 2,000 if they were isolated and sold on the open market .