Carbon: A Biography

Carbon is a polymorphic entity with many faces, ranging across ten million different compounds and playing a vital role in human life and climate change. It has a long and prestigious CV, with applications ranging from jewelry to heating, and is the chemical basis of all known life. A biography of carbon transgresses the boundaries between chemical and social existence, between nature and culture, and allows us to view our own with fresh eyes.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 21 June 2024
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Carbon is much more than a chemical element; it is a polymorphic entity with many faces, both natural and cultural. It encompasses a vast range of ten million different compounds, each with its own unique characteristics and roles in human life on Earth. Despite its widespread presence and importance, carbon often fails to capture the headlines, often portrayed as the villain of our fossil-based economy, fueling an addiction that drives dangerous levels of consumption and international conflict. However, the impact of carbon on climate change only tells part of the story, and to demonize carbon as an element that will bring about the downfall of humanity is to reduce it to a pale shadow of itself. In this major new history of carbon, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Sacha Loeve demonstrate that this omnipresent element is at the root of countless histories and adventures throughout time, thanks to its extraordinary versatility. Carbon has a long and prestigious CV, with its work and achievements extending far beyond the burning of fossil fuels. The fourth most abundant element in the universe and the second most abundant element in the human body, carbon is the chemical basis of all known life. Carbon chemistry has a long history, with applications ranging from jewelry to heating, underpinning developments in metallurgy, textiles, pharmaceuticals, electronics, nanoscience, and green technologies. A biography of carbon transgresses the boundaries between chemical and social existence, between nature and culture, forcing us to abandon the simplified image of carbon as the anti-hero of human civilization and enabling us to see instead the great diversity of carbon's modes of existence. With scientific precision and literary flair, Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve unravel the surprising way.

Weight: 582g
Dimension: 238 x 162 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509559206