Chemistry's capital C
By 
Neil Withers2025-06-30T08:13:00
From refinery scale to a nanosecond existence, carbon is everywhere – in life as well as chemistry
Whenever a character in a science fiction film or TV programme describes life as ‘carbon-based’, it always makes me groan a little inside. After all, our bodies are 60% water, and even DNA itself has more oxygen – by mass or atoms – in it than it does carbon.