It can be glittering and hard.It can be soft and flaky.It can look like a soccer is the backbone of every living thing—and yet it just might cause the end of life on Earth as we know it.How can a lump of coal and a shining diamond be composed of the same material? Here are nine things you probably didn’t know about carbon.

可以又亮又硬，也可以又软又脆，还可以外表像个足球——碳是构成所有生物的基本物质，正如我们所知，它也可能终结地球上的所有生物。一块煤和一枚亮晶晶的钻石怎么会是相同物质组成的呢？以下是你可能不知道的有关碳的9 个事实。

1.It’s the “duct tape of life.”

1.碳是“生命的胶带”。

It’s in every living thing,and in quite a few dead ones.“Water may be the solvent of the universe,” writes Natalie Angier in her classic introduction to science,The Canon,“but carbon is the duct tape of life.” Not only is carbon duct tape,it’s one hell of a duct tape.It binds atoms to one another,forming humans,animals,plants and rocks.If we play around with it,we can coax it into plastics,paints,and all kinds of chemicals.

碳存在于每一种活的生物体和相当数量已死亡的生物体内。纳塔莉·安吉尔在其经典的科学入门书《正典》中写道：“水可能是宇宙的溶剂，而碳是生命的胶带。”碳不仅仅是一种胶带，还是一种了不起的胶带。碳将原子与原子相互联结，形成人类、动物、植物和岩石。如果我们对碳进行加工，就能制造出塑料、颜料和各种化学制品。

2.It’s one of the most abundant elements in the universe.

2.碳是宇宙中最丰富的元素之一。

It sits right at the top of the periodic table,wedged in between boron and number 6,chemical sign C.Six protons,six neutrons,six is the fourth most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen,helium,and oxygen,and 15th in the Earth’s its older cousins hydrogen and helium are believed to have been formed during the tumult of the Big Bang,carbon is thought to stem from a buildup of alpha particles in supernova explosions,a process called supernova nucleosynthesis.

碳位于元素周期表的顶端，在硼和氮之间。其原子序数为6，化学符号为C，有6个质子、6 个中子和6 个电子。碳是宇宙中第4 多的元素，仅次于氢、氦和氧，地壳中则排名第15。人们认为，碳的表兄氢和氦是在宇宙大爆炸的混乱中生成的，碳则是由超新星爆炸中的α 粒子堆积形成的，这个过程叫作超新星核合成。

3.It’s named after coal.

3.碳得名于煤。

While humans have known carbon as coal and—after burning—soot for thousands of years,it was Antoine Lavoisier who,in 1772,showed that it was in fact a unique chemical used an instrument that focused the Sun’s rays using lenses which had a diameter of about four feet.He used the apparatus,called a solar furnace,to burn a diamond in a glass jar.By analyzing the residue found in the jar,he was able to show that diamond was comprised solely of first listed it as an element in his textbookTraité élémentaire de Chimie,published in 1789.The name carbon derives from the Frenchcharbon,or coal.

数千年来，人们一直认为碳就是煤和煤燃烧后产生的灰烬，但1772年，安托万·拉瓦锡证明了碳实际上是一种独特的化学实体。拉瓦锡用直径约4 英尺的透镜聚集太阳光线，并用名为“太阳炉”的仪器在玻璃瓶中燃烧了一颗金刚石。通过分析瓶中的残留物，拉瓦锡得以证明金刚石完全由碳组成。拉瓦锡在其1789年出版的教科书《化学基础论》中首次将碳列为一种化学元素。而碳这一名称来源于法语的charbon，也就是煤。

4.It loves to bond.

4.碳易成键。

It can form four bonds,which it does with many other elements,creating hundreds of thousands of compounds,some of which we use daily.(Plastics! Drugs! Gasoline!) More importantly,those bonds are both strong and flexible.

碳原子可与其他许多元素的原子形成四个共价键，创造出成千上万种化合物，其中有些正是我们日常使用的，例如塑料、药物和汽油等。更重要的是，这些键既牢固又灵活。

5.Nearly 20 percent of your body is carbon.

5.人体将近20%都是碳。

May Nyman,a professor of inorganic chemistry at Oregon State University in Corvallis,Oregon tellsMental Flossthat carbon has an almost unbelievable range.“It makes up all life forms,and in the number of substances it makes,the fats,the sugars,there is a huge diversity,” she says.It forms chains and rings,in a process chemists call living thing is built on a backbone of carbon (with nitrogen,hydrogen,oxygen,and other elements).So animals,plants,every living cell,and of course humans are a product of bodies are 18.5 percent carbon,by weight.

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