General Question

CATHERINEATHANS's avatar

How many cells are in the human body?

Asked by CATHERINEATHANS (10points) January 24th, 2011

Many children think that they are stupid and useless. Because each cell can make a whole other person, given the proper atmosphere, I wish to know,

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6 Answers

poisonedantidote's avatar

An estimated 10 to 50 trillion cells.

I wish I knew how to clone children too, (I’d open up a shop and sell ‘em as pets)

Lightlyseared's avatar

The most commonly quoted figure is 100 trillion. However only about 10% of the cells in a human body are actually “human”.

josrific's avatar

Lightlyseared: If not all cells in the human body are human, what else could they possibly be?

gasman's avatar

I have also heard the figure 10^14 (100 trillion). @poisonedantidote‘s answer agrees in order of magnitude.

And I don’t get @Lightlyseared‘s point about 90% non-human cells either.

syz's avatar

I suspect that @Lightlyseared may be referring to the bacteria that populate our digestive tract, mucosa, and skin.

edit: Hmm, or on second thought, maybe not; that percentage seems high.

re-edit: Oops, had it right the first time.

mcsnazzy's avatar

many trillion, however the number is ever changing due to mitosis.

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