Are Atoms Immortal? The Enduring Mystery of Matter and Life
Despite not being technically immortal, the atoms that compose our world will likely persist long after we are gone, cycling through new forms of life and existing for timescales that dwarf human comprehension.
The notion that “nothing comes from nothing; nothing can become nothing” has resonated with thinkers for millennia. From ancient Middle Eastern and Greek cosmology, which posited the universe forming from eternal material, to the modern law of conservation of matter—famously articulated by Antoine Lavoisier in 1785—the idea of enduring substance has remained central to our understanding of reality. But what does this mean for the fundamental building blocks of everything: atoms? And if they are eternal, why does life, composed of these atoms, inevitably end?
These are profound questions about something incredibly small, so let’s begin at the beginning. According to physicists, most of the matter we know originated in the Big Bang, a moment when the universe existed as pure energy. As the universe expanded and cooled, this energy coalesced into matter—atoms, the constituents of everything from water and clouds to distant stars.
Each atom consists of a nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. However, the number of these subatomic particles isn’t fixed. Protons can transform into neutrons, and vice versa, influencing an atom’s properties. A change in proton or neutron count alters the element itself; for example, potassium, found in bananas, can decay into calcium. Atoms can even disintegrate, shedding particles and becoming smaller atoms. This raises a critical question: does the original atom truly disappear, or is immortality a matter of perspective?
Atoms, as far as we know, are ancient. According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), atoms began to form approximately 380,000 years after the Big Bang, meaning some have existed for at least 13.3 billion years. This longevity leads to a fascinating debate among scientists. “For a physicist, the atom lives on, it just changed a little bit,” one expert explained. “But for a chemist, if you change potassium into calcium or something else, it’s a completely different substance.”
Marco van Leeuwen, a physicist at Nikhef, the National Laboratory for Particle Physics in the Netherlands, leans toward the former view. He considers atoms immortal in the sense that even with particle loss, they retain their fundamental identity—much like a mug remains a mug even if its handle breaks. But what about the simplest atom, hydrogen, consisting of just one proton and one electron? Could losing either particle erase its existence?
CERN theoretical physicist Matthew McCullough believes hydrogen’s simplicity makes it a prime candidate for immortality. “As far as we know, no,” he says, referring to the possibility of hydrogen disintegrating. While it hasn’t been observed, that doesn’t rule it out. The decay rate of a proton is incredibly slow—estimated to be longer than 10³⁴ years, a timeframe vastly exceeding the age of the universe and the likely lifespan of Earth. “In practical terms, yes, I would say that atoms are immortal. In absolute terms, I don’t think they are.”
However, even immortality has its limits. At CERN, scientists at the A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) collide lead ions at extreme energies—100,000 times hotter than the sun’s core. These collisions transform matter into a state called quark-gluon plasma, effectively “completely destroying” the atom and its claim to immortality. These high-energy collisions aren’t limited to laboratories; cosmic rays can also induce similar atomic destruction in the atmosphere. “We are atom killers,” van Leeuwen confessed.
So, while atoms aren’t technically immortal, their persistence far outstrips our own. The vast majority of atoms composing Earth will remain long after humanity’s extinction. But this raises a deeper question: if atoms are so enduring, why does life—a complex arrangement of these atoms—inevitably die?
The answer, according to astrobiologist Betül Kaçar of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lies in the distinction between matter and life. “We are made of chemicals. There’s no doubt about that,” she stated. “But certainly something very unique happened on our planet that we haven’t seen anywhere else: this is the only one where atoms transition to a state that exhibits living behavior.”
Life isn’t simply about the atoms themselves, but how they interact. A snowflake, a static arrangement of atoms, exists for a time, but lacks the capacity for self-replication. Life, on the other hand, possesses “memory”—the ability to reproduce, compete, and evolve. “Life is chemistry that has memory,” Kaçar explained.
Ultimately, life is a unique behavior arising from the interaction of atoms, a behavior we are still striving to fully understand. And while individual lives are finite, the atoms that compose us aren’t wasted. They become part of new life, cycling through ecosystems and continuing the cosmic dance.
“In a very deep sense, we are immortal because our atoms, after we are gone, will be here, and will be a source of food for something else,” Kaçar noted. Even after humanity’s demise, life will continue on Earth, sustained by the enduring atoms that once formed us. Furthermore, we possess a unique ability—the capacity to question our own existence. “We could be the only composition of atoms in the universe that reflects on its existence.” We are, in essence, atoms questioning their own mortality.
