If things are "old" yet all matter existed before time...aren't we all old?

Question

Is there actually new matter created, or are we all made of the matter from the beginning of time?

Answer 1

Carl Sagan said it best -- "We are all made of star stuff".
I'm so glad I got to take a class with him at Cornell.

Elements transform (radioactive decay transforms elements into more stable elements) (Solar pressures and heat transform elements up the scale) .
As far as creating NEW matter - well

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In cosmology, the steady state theory (also known as the Infinite Universe Theory or continuous creation) is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory (known, usually, as the standard cosmological model). In some steady state views, new matter is continuously created as the universe expands, so that the perfect cosmological principle is adhered to. Although the model had a large number of supporters among cosmologists in the 1950s and 1960s, the number of supporters decreased markedly in the late 1960s with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and today only a very small number of supporters remain. The key importance of the steady-state model is that as a competitor to the Big Bang, it was an impetus in generating some of the most important research in astrophysics, much of which ultimately ended up supporting the Big Bang theory.
--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steady_state_theory
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So the answer is ... we don't have evedence for new matter but we have a lot that indicates there is no new matter being created..

Answer 2

The nucleons that make the atoms that make the molecules than make the cells that make you date from the first few minutes after the big bang.
However, some of those nucleus (heavier than hydrogen) were produced in the cauldron of hot stars -- which turned the hydrogen into progressively heavier elements, as all matter following the big bang was either hydrogen (a bit of) helium and (very little) lithium -- and was scattered by those stars going supernova.
So some of your atoms are not as old as the protons and neutrons are.
Since atoms do not "wear out", their age is somewhat irrelevant.

Answer 3

We basically are made of atoms which are mass structures.
However what defines us as having life which is something that is different from atomic structure is just not understood by modern science.
Science has no real definition of what matter is made of,nor do we really understand the substance of space or what kind of composition is its structure.

WE are only the Createes not The Creator.

Its very vely simple

Answer 4

Hi. The matter can and does change form inside of stars. But the quarks should all be old.

Answer 5

Everything is made of protons, neutrons and electrons. No more of them are being made.

Answer 6

Yes we're all recycled

Answer 7

Hey, don't rub it in, I know I'm old already!