Because they are so long-lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms (...) probably once belonged to Shakespeare. (...) So we are all reincarnations - though short-lived ones. When we die, our atoms will dissemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere - as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew. Atoms themselves, however, go on practically for ever. (B. Bryson, A short history of nearly everything, p. 176)