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That's a very good question, and we applaud your class for its inquisitiveness. We knew there were a lot of cells in the human body, but we were hard pressed to put an actual number on it. It seemed like a fairly straightforward query, so we tried a straightforward approach and typed "number cells human body." Our results were numerous and informative, but after flipping through them, we learned there really is no consensus on the answer. Some sources told us that the average adult human body is made up of "50 million million" (50 trillion) cells, while others put the figure closer to 10 trillion. Science NetLinks, a resource for science teachers, stated that there are approximately "ten to the 14th power" (that's 100 trillion) cells in the human body. Keep in mind, all of these figures are just estimates. At this time, there really is no way to know the exact number of cells in a human body. Can you imagine trying to count them all? Plus, as one source pointed out, the number will vary from person to person, depending on their size. The number of cells in your own body is constantly changing, as cells die or are destroyed and new ones are formed. So even the number of cells in your own body is not static. For a host of other cell resources, stop by the Yahoo! Cell
Biology category. You'll learn more than you can imagine about those "building blocks of life."
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