Carbon. It's in the fibers in your hair, the timbers in your walls, the
food that you eat, and the air that you breathe. It's worth billions of
dollars as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are
still mysteries about the element that can be both diamond and coal.
Where does it come from, what does it do, and why, above all, does life
need it? With poetic storytelling, Robert M. Hazen leads us on a global
journey through the origin and evolution of life's most essential and
ubiquitous element.