Photographs: "Magic Portals ~ Atomic Turnover, Photographic Out-Takes" series

"I speak and speak , [...] but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. 

[...] it is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear ." 

~ Marco Polo (to Kublai Khan)

as reported in Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" (1974, ch. 9)

"Magic Portals"

Atomic Turnover, Photographic Out-Takes

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Location: Venice Beach and Los Angeles, California 

Camera: Sony DSC-RX100 M2 (pocket camera) 

Conditions: Night, multi-directional ambient light, no flash, no tripod

"Atomic turn-over rate is called 'Hmolscience', 

( Human molecular science )

the turnover rate refers to the rate of change, 

the number of atoms that turn over in the physical body. 

Every day and night we change, 

at the completion of one year 

the atomic transformation rate 

shape-shifts us close to 98% different. 

The body contains only 2 percent of the atoms 

that were spinning in it one year ago. 

Every year a person renews - 

the human life-form regenerates the 26-elements 

that comprise the human body 

completely new each year. 

Is it true that when you look into the night sky, 

you are looking back in time?

Is it true that the Hubble telescope allows us 

to look back billions of years into the past? 

I do not know, but I do know 

that truth exists in each atom -

our universal human atomics 

contain all stories ever told."

~ Karin Lisa Atkinson

"Mitakuye Oyasin - We are all related"
~ truth of the Lakota people

~~~

"Every 16 days about 72% of you is replaced. 

Every 16 days nearly 100% of the water in the human body is exchanged." 

~ Paul C. Aebersold 

“Every year, 98 percent of the atoms of your body are replaced.” 

~ Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan

 “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, 

think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” 

~ Nikola Tesla 

 “We are all connected; 

To each other, biologically. 

To the earth, chemically. 

To the rest of the universe atomically.”

~ Neil deGrasse Tyson 

 “Quantum physicists have proven through radioactive isotope studies 

that 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced within one year. 

In three months your body produces an entirely new skeleton. 

Every six weeks, all the cells have been replaced in your liver. 

You have a new stomach lining every five days. 

You are continually replacing old blood cells with new ones. 

Your skin is sloughing off dead cells 

and producing a new skin monthly.” 

~ Deepak Chopra 

 “I have been puzzled by my ability 

to remember my childhood 

even though most of the molecules in my body today 

are not the same ones I had as a child - 

in particular the molecules that make up my brain 

are constantly being replaced with newly minted molecules- 

despite this molecular turnover, 

I have detailed memories of places 

where I lived fifty years ago.” 

~ Terrence Joseph Sejnowski

“The atoms now in your body are being replaced 

by new atoms at an amazingly rapid rate ... 

Although next year you will be almost a completely new batch of atoms, 

you won’t necessarily be a new person. 

Your supercolossal traffic of atoms 

does not take place just by chance. 

It is very carefully regulated and controlled ... 

Even though most of the atoms in our brain 

will have been replaced by other atoms, 

we will still go on remembering things 

that happened a long time ago ... 

Every 16 days about 72% of you is replaced. 

~ Paul C. Aebersold

Below Excerpt: Dr. Aebersold's paper presented to 

The Smithsonian Institute in 1953: 

“Radioisotopes - New keys to knowledge” 

Atomic replacement can be estimated: 

*The Gums are replaced every 2 weeks. 

*The Skin replaced every 4 weeks.

*The Liver replaced every 6 weeks.

*The Lining of blood vessels replaced every 6 months.

*The Heart replaced every 6 months.

*The lining in stomach and intestine every 4 days. 

*The Surface cells of digestion, top layer cells in the digestion process 

from our mouth through our large bowel are replaced every 5 minutes. 

*Heavy elements like carbon, sodium and potassium 

take occupancy far longer perhaps 8 months - 11 months. 

*Calcium and phosphorus in bones are replaced in a dynamic crystal growth / 

dissolving process that will ultimately replace all bones in your body.

~~~

“Each one of us was created out of the dust of the earth,
not thousands of years ago,
but within the last few years."

“Some particles of nonliving matter are drawn into our bodies
and become the medium of life, motion and thought.
Just as often the reverse process is repeated.
Particles of carbon which have formed part of our living bodies
are thrown off with every breath,
rapt away by the atoms of oxygen,
and sink into the nirvana of the inanimate world,
changing their allegiance from the animal to the vegetable kingdom.

This transformation of living to nonliving matter
is just as great a miracle as the reverse process,
when you think of it.

We can no more understand how we can die than how we can live.

People say we die but once.
Really we die every few years just as completely as we ever shall.

Not all parts of the body wear out equally fast
and have to be renewed as frequently.
The more mobile and softer tissues change most rapidly.
The blood is altering in composition constantly.
But even the particles of lime, carbon and phosphorus in the solidest bone
are continually being taken out and replaced by new ones,
just as they change a railroad bridge,
piece by piece, without tearing it down
and interrupting the traffic at any time.

In the external parts of the body we can see this for ourselves.

We get entirely new fingernails every four or five months,
and new toe nails once a year.
Our eyelashes last us only about a hundred days,
and we get a new skin oftener than we get new clothes -
hat is, most of us—for that is renewed every month.

The only part of the body that is not completely changed
in the course of a few years
(which popular belief places at the magical number of seven)
is the enamel of our teeth.

So it would seem
that since we are not composed of the same material
we cannot be the same persons we were years ago.
According to this view,
no man ought to be held to a contract longer than,
say, seven years at most.
If a man is arrested for crime committed ten years ago
he can easily prove an alibi.
He can show that ever particle
which constituted the man who did the deed
has long since been dissipated
and now forms part of the air, the sea, and the soil.

A man never celebrates his silver wedding
with the same woman he married.
He may call her his wife,
but really he is not married to any part of her -
except, as I said, to her teeth
and perhaps those are changed.
Speaking from a materialistic point of view,
a couple ought, for decency's sake,
to have the ceremony performed
over again every few years,
so as to stay married.

Why is it that these things which are literally true seem to us so absurd?

The reason is because of the very apparent fallacy.
It is the fallacy of materialism.
We know we are the same persons
we were last year and the year before.
Although we may have changed somewhat,
we know it is not because
we have new finger nails,
new eyelashes
and new everything.
That did not change us.
We know that if every molecule of our bodies
were suddenly replaced by new molecules
we should never know the difference.

As the wisest of the Greeks said long ago:
‘the water changes, but the river remains the same.’

We really care nothing for the particular atoms
of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen
which make up what we mistakenly call ourselves.
Let them go; we can get more:
or if we cannot we do not want to keep these longer.
We are not attached to the matter that composes our bodies.”
~ Edwin Emery Slosson
( Light Science )

“I am somewhat exhausted; 

I wonder how a battery feels
when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?”
~ Arthur Conan Doyle

+ ETERNITY