Carbon in its various guises is extraordinarily versatile. Able to latch onto itself and onto a huge variety of other substances, it forms thousands of different chemicals. Its importance to us as living creatures is demonstrated by the description of living things as being carbon-based. Although science fiction writers have long speculated about the possibility of life based on silicon rather than carbon, no example has ever been seen.
Chemical combinations of carbon make up much of the sedimentary
mountain ranges of the Chihuahuan Desert; the limestone of many desert ranges, for
example, is largely of calcium carbonate. The "carbonate" part, of course,
refers to carbon. We have oodles of carbon as limestone, but sadly, seemingly lack
other kinds that would be of greater commercial value. The so-called lead of pencils is
a special kind of pure carbon called graphite, and good deposits could be worth a lot.
But what we'd really like is a different form of pure carbon—the same stuff
as graphite, but with a far different history—a history that makes common carbon
into rare diamonds.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.