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Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has selected the books we stock since the store began in 1989. It’s a job that he loves. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. He’s very fussy with fiction, with a rule that if a novel hasn’t earned his attention by page 50 then it’s time to start a new one. Magic realism causes him great anxiety, and of course he’d never agree with you if you said that is because he’s an earth sign.
It is the building block of every cell that makes up every living thing. It is the essential component of the food we eat, the fuel we burn, the wood we use and the air we breathe. It is worth billions as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are still mysteries to be solved about the element that can be both diamond and coal. Where does it come from, what does it do, and why, above all, does life need it?
This book explains how carbon is formed in the hearts of stars and why all life forms - earthbound or alien - use it as the basis of their biology.