Carbon One Atom's Odyssey

A richly illustrated history of a single atom of carbon, tracing its many manifestations from the Big Bang to the present.

Carbon: One Atom's Odyssey is an illustrated adaptation of 'Carbon,' a short story from Italian chemist, writer, and Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. It traces the life story and many molecular manifestations of a single atom of this life-essential element.

You'll follow one atom from its spectacular birth 14 billion years ago through its harrowing journey on planet earth where it has become a basic building block of nearly 10 million known compounds in living things. You’ll learn that carbon:

Is breathed in by the Peregrine Falcon

Helps trees grow strong and tall

Lets a moth's eye make sense of light

Is found in your pencil as well as in your liver

And even helps convert grapes into wine

In this wondrous graphic journey, clever narrative and detailed art help bring to life the natural world and teach you a thing or two about how it was created. For anyone with a general interest in chemistry, physics, and the science of the universe, this beautiful book will both educate and inspire. If you’re ready for a STEAM adventure, then let the journey begin!

John Barnett is a life-long, self-taught lover of science. His favorite job was as a shepherd in Cornwall, England. For many years he enjoyed working as a carpenter, even building his own sailboat which, last he knew, still floats. For the past decade he has called himself a graphic designer and illustrator, skills he has applied toward many books. This book is the first of his own. The drawings within were done 'old-school' with fine-tipped mechanical pencils on paper. John currently lives on the shore of (and quite often on) Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island with his wife and three children.

Roald Hoffmann was born in 1937 in Zloczow, then Poland. He came to the US in 1949, and has long been at Cornell, active as a theoretical chemist. In chemistry he has taught his colleagues how to think about electrons influencing structure and reactivity, and won most of the honors of his profession. Hoffmann is also a writer, carving out his own land between poetry, philosophy, and science. He has published six books of non-fiction, three plays, and six volumes of poetry, including two book length selections of his poems in Spanish and Russian translations.