The Many Lives of Carbon

Dag Olav Hessen

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Hardback

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English

Reaktion Books
01 January 2018

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Organic chemistry

In its pure form carbon can be the soft graphite in a pencil or an immensely hard diamond. It is the basic building block of most of the cells in our bodies. Carbon attracts, and one of the most crucial relationships it forms is with oxygen, producing carbon dioxide, the gas vital to life on earth. This is the story of a chemical element, C, its myriad properties and its life cycle.

It is the story of a balance between photosynthesis and cell respiration, between building and burning, life and death. Dag Olav Hessen navigates us through an exploration of the existence of carbon in minerals and rocks, wood and rainforests, and of carbon's role in processes such as the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycles, on both small and large scales. He explores the burning issue of climate change: how will ecosystems respond to global change? How bad could things get? Will the world's ecosystems recover? And what are our moral obligations? Neither alarmist nor moralistic, Hessen takes the reader on a journey from the atom to our planet in informative, compelling prose.

By: Dag Olav Hessen
Imprint: Reaktion Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781780238517
ISBN 10: 1780238517
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 January 2018
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dag Olav Hessen is Professor of Biology at the University of Oslo, and the author of many popular science books and scientific papers on ecology and evolution.

Reviews for The Many Lives of Carbon

`This is a brilliant and deep journey into the science, history, and indeed the morality of the Periodic Table's sixth element, carbon. An accomplished scientist and a masterful storyteller, Dag Hessen takes us from the elegance of the Koh-i-Noor diamond to the putrescence of cow flatulence, explaining the science behind carbon's connection to our bodies (we are 40% C, once water is removed) and to our future given its ongoing impact on global climate. Hessen has a particular knack for explaining chemical concepts clearly and illustrating chemical transformations, all while weaving seamlessly between the physics of atoms, the geology of Earth's crust, and the biology of organic molecules. Readers will enjoy the journey while also gaining some philosophical and ethical perspective on the tradeoffs and complexities that are involved as humanity struggles to decarbonize. Carbon - you thought you knew it? Think again and read this book.' - Jim Elser, Bierman Professor of Ecology, University of Montana