1 million billion billion billion billion billion billion: Number of undiscovered drugs
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - 12:30
in Astronomy & Space
occupied not by stars and planets but substances that could become useful in everyday life has concluded that scientists have synthesized barely one tenth of 1 percent of the potential medicines that could be made. The report, in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, estimates that the actual number of these so-called "small molecules" could be 1 novemdecillion (that's 1 with 60 zeroes), 1 million billion billion billion billion billion billion, which is more than some estimates of the number of stars in the universe.