Carbon, with its myriad compounds, is the backbone of life and the central element of organic chemistry. The number of bonds a carbon atom forms with other elements in a compound determines its ...

"Elemental carbon is a good electrical conductor. Carbon may be the key to the symbiosis between the archaea and their partners," speculates Gunter Wegener. Electrical charges could be transported ...

Everything we can see and touch, and quite a lot that we can’t as well, is made of tiny particles called atoms. Some substances, like particles of this iron, contain only one kind of atom. Iron is an ...