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Good Reads  Reference  Physical Sciences  Chemistry

Symphony in C Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything

Popular Science
By: Robert M Hazen(Author)
290 pages, 8 plates with colour photos and colour illustrations;
NHBS
A grand overview of an ambitious global research programme, Symphony in C amazes with its new findings and explains why and how carbon is at the heart of pretty much everything.
Symphony in C
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  • Symphony in C ISBN: 9780008292416 Paperback Aug 2020 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 1-2 weeks
    £9.99
    #247809
  • Symphony in C ISBN: 9780008292386 Hardback Jun 2019 In stock
    £19.99
    #241972
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About this book

An enchanting biography of the most resonant – and most necessary – chemical element on Earth.

Carbon is everywhere: in the paper of this book and the blood of our bodies. It's with us from beginning to end, present in our baby clothes and coffin alike. We live on a carbon planet, and we are carbon life. No other element is so central to our well-being; yet, when missing or misaligned, carbon atoms can also bring about disease and even death. At once ubiquitous and mysterious, carbon holds the answers to some of humanity's biggest questions. Where did Earth come from? What will ultimately become of it – and of us? With poetic storytelling, earth scientist Robert M. Hazen explores the universe to discover the past, present, and future of life's most essential element.

We're not only "made of star stuff", as Carl Sagan famously observed, but "Big Bang stuff", too. Hazen reveals that carbon's grand symphony began with a frenzied prelude shortly after the dawn of creation, bringing new attention to the tiny number of Big Bang–created carbon atoms that often get overlooked. In minutes, violently colliding protons and neutrons improbably formed the first carbon atoms, which can still be found within our bodies. His book then unfolds in four movements, building momentum as he explores carbon as the element of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. He visits the famed volcanic crater Solfatara di Pozzuoli near Naples, where venting carbon dioxide and other noxious fumes condense into beautiful crystals. He climbs the cliffs of the Scottish Highlands and delves deep into the precious-metal mines of Namibia, journeying toward Earth's mysterious core in search of undocumented carbon structures. Hazen often asks us to pause and consider carbon's role in climate change and what we can do about it, for our lives and this element are inextricably intertwined. With prose that sparkles like a diamond, Symphony in C tells the story of carbon, in which we all have a part.

Customer Reviews (1)

  • A grand overview, hard to put down
    By Leon (NHBS Catalogue Editor) 25 Jul 2019 Written for Hardback


    Many works of popular science claim to be histories of almost everything or everyone, but earth scientist Robert M. Hazen might actually be in the position to stake that claim. Whether you are talking stellar evolution, the origin of life, organic chemistry, synthetic materials, or hydrocarbon fuels – the multifaceted atom carbon is ubiquitous and pervasive. Symphony in C is a whirlwind tour through geology, biochemistry, and evolutionary biology that is an incredibly absorbing read, although in places it almost comes apart at the seams under the intensity of its enthusiasm.

    As executive director of the Deep Carbon Observatory or DCO, a decade-long global research programme on carbon that was initiated in 2009, Hazen is uniquely positioned to write this sweeping overview. The story of how this came off the ground is a thrilling reminder that fundamental research is not dead yet and that the right person in the right place can unleash incredible energy and momentum in a research community. You would be forgiven for thinking that this book closely mirrors the research goals of the DCO, reporting its outcomes for a lay audience. The DCO features prominently throughout, but Symphony in C is instead loosely structured around the analogy of a musical symphony in four movements (Hazen is also a lifelong musician).

    The first two movements, Earth and Air, tackle technical topics such as mineralogy and atmospheric chemistry – generally speaking not the kind of subjects that will electrify audiences. What a treat, then, to find Hazen writing sections that I cannot call anything else but riveting.

    “Earth” traces the formation of our planet and its minerals, highlighting the surprising finding that many mineral species are incredibly rare. Not only has there been an ambitious project to build a global mineral database (going by the unlikely name of RRUFF), but scientists have even used mathematical models to estimate the number of “missing minerals” yet to be discovered. Similarly, Hazen makes topics such as X-ray crystallography accessible, revealing the unexpectedly different mineral world existing in the high-pressure environment of Earth’s interior.

    The story of Earth’s atmosphere is one of drama and fascinating questions. Drama in the form of the obliteration of Earth’s early atmosphere during the cosmic collision that formed our moon (see also The Big Splat). Fascinating questions in the form of the deep carbon cycle and whether the amount of carbon descending into Earth’s interior (e.g. through subduction or sedimentation) is balanced by what comes back up (e.g. through volcanoes).

    Movement three, Fire, is a complete change of pace. In a mere 30 pages, Hazen gives a brief overview of carbon’s role in all our stuff. From fuels to synthetic materials, carbon’s physical properties make it eminently suitable to a very wide range of applications, with nanotubes and graphene sheets promising a future of even strong and thinner materials. This section seems to have little to do with the DCO research programme, and there is no mention of the people behind the science or of particular breakthrough experiments. Instead, Hazen writes a pop-science section that reminded me of Miodownik’s recent book Liquid.

    The final section, Water, is the proverbial crowd-pleaser, exploring the for many fascinating topic of the origin of life and the role of carbon in it. Hazen reveals himself to be a nuanced thinker who prefers not to fall into the trap of false dichotomies. Did life start in the heat of deep ocean volcanic vents or in shallow pools of water lashed by lighting (as per the famous Miller-Urey experiment)? Hazen favours the idea that there is truth to all of these mechanisms, that “early Earth was an engine of organic synthesis”. Equally fascinating is the question “why carbon?” This question was also asked by Charles Cockell (see my review of The Equations of Life), and Hazen gives a slightly less physics-heavy overview of why carbon’s atomic properties make it such a versatile and therefore useful building block for life.

    This last section feels like the frenetic overture to Hazen’s symphony as the evolution of life added many layers and subtleties to Earth’s carbon cycle. From the surprising abundance of microbial lifeforms at great depths (see Deep Life), the mineral-microbe interactions that kick-started life (see Life’s Engines), the colonisation of land by plants and then animals (see The Emerald Planet and Your Inner Fish), the formation of most of our planet’s fossil fuel reserves during the Carboniferous (see my review of Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction), or radiocarbon dating (see Hot Carbon) – this is the section where Hazen packs in topics that have received book-length treatments elsewhere. There are so many interesting things to tell here that the narrative almost derails under its own intensity.

    Throughout, Hazen introduces the many researchers, past and present, who are behind the findings. A review in Nature faulted the book for leaving out certain historic figures, something I cannot really comment on given my unfamiliarity with the topic. Hazen does mention the story told here is inherently personal – “many symphonies of C are waiting to be written”. What I found missing were illustrations. The unnumbered colour plate section is a bit of a grabbag of useful diagrams and photos of scientists at work, but the text never refers to it, leaving the reader to figure out when to consult the plates. Illustrations in the body of the text could have been used to show certain concepts that are now described at length.

    Symphony in C covers a vast range of topics, possibly at the risk of losing its structure. Although the narrative-as-a-symphony idea is original and Hazen can really run with it given his background, I did not feel it always worked. The saving grace that prevents this book from becoming a jumbled list of facts is Hazen’s excellent writing. I simply struggled to put the book down! I found the first two sections particularly eye-opening as they dealt with disciplines I am less familiar with. Interestingly, Cambridge University Press will publish Deep Carbon later this year, an edited collection on the DCO’s research written for an academic audience. If that book looks too intimidating then Symphony in C is exactly your ticket to understand why carbon is at the heart of pretty much everything.
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Biography

Robert M. Hazen is Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University. He received the BS and SM in geology at the MIT, his PhD at Harvard University in Earth science and was NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge University. The biomineral 'hazenite' was named in his honour.

Popular Science
By: Robert M Hazen(Author)
290 pages, 8 plates with colour photos and colour illustrations;
NHBS
A grand overview of an ambitious global research programme, Symphony in C amazes with its new findings and explains why and how carbon is at the heart of pretty much everything.
Media reviews

"[...] Hazen's book is a valuable and welcome explanation of why we would do well to pay more attention to the sixth element – and of how much more remains to be discovered about its planetary role through time."
– Ted Nield, Nature 570(7760), June 2019

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