The secret life of molecules
Whilst I was trawling around on the internet the other day in search of ever more obscure factoids, I came across this rather amazing claim with regard to molecules of water. The gist of it was that every single living person on earth has at least one molecule of water in them that was once pissed out by Oliver Cromwell. Quite why Oliver Cromwell should have been chosen to represent this "fact" I am not sure as presumably it could have been applied to any historical figure or indeed anyone who ever lived. I am not even sure if it is true or just one of those "urban myths" that crops up from time to time. Further digging suggested it may have once been mentioned on QI, though I am not sure if that is where it came from or someone on the show heard it elsewhere and thought it worthy of an airing. It is all to do with the sheer scale of the numbers involved. Atoms and molecules, being the extremely small things they are means that even in a single drop of water the...