Carbon

A Biography

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Sacha Loeve, Stephen Muecke

$61.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Polity Press
05 July 2024

Mathematics & Sciences; History of science; Popular science; Inorganic chemistry

Carbon is much more than a chemical element: it is a polymorphic entity with many faces, at once natural, cultural and social. Ranging across 10 million different compounds, carbon has as many personas in nature as it has roles in human life on Earth. And yet it rarely makes the headlines as anything other than the villain of our fossil-based economy, feeding an addiction which is driving dangerous levels of consumption and international conflict and which, left unchecked, could lead to our demise as a species. But the impact of CO on climate change only tells part of the story, and to demonise carbon as an element which will bring about the downfall of humanity is to reduce it to a pale shadow of itself.

In this major new history of carbon, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Sacha Loeve show that this omnipresent element is at the root of countless histories and adventures through time, thanks to its extraordinary versatility. Carbon has a long and prestigious CV: its work and achievements extend far beyond the burning of fossil fuels. The fourth most abundant element in the universe and the second most abundant element in the human body, carbon is the chemical basis of all known life. Carbon chemistry has a long history, with applications ranging from jewellery to heating, underpinning developments in metallurgy, textiles, pharmaceuticals, electronics, nanoscience and green technologies.

A biography of carbon transgresses the boundaries between chemical and social existence, between nature and culture, forcing us to abandon the simplified image of carbon as the anti-hero of human civilization and enabling us to see instead the great diversity of carbon’s modes of existence. With scientific precision and literary flair, Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve unravel the surprising ways in which carbon has shaped our world, showing how unrecognisable the Earth would be without it. Uncovering the many hidden lives of carbon allows us to view our own with fresh eyes.

By: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Sacha Loeve
Translated by: Stephen Muecke
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781509559206
ISBN 10: 1509559205
Pages: 316
Publication Date: 05 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Prologue: Why write a biography of carbon? PART I The Invention of Carbon 1. Mephitis A thing with many names A genius of place Geomythologies An elixir of youth 2. An indescribable air From mephitic air to ‘sylvester spirit’ From ‘sylvester spirit’ to fixed air From fixed air to carbonic acid 3. Between diamond and coal The diamond enigma A creature of nomenclature Coal’s footprint Word battles 4. An exemplary element A textbook example A material abstraction A metaphysical substance 5. Carbon liberates itself One among others Two or three chemistries? A quartet of elements An exchange centre A standard of measurement 6. A relational being Atomicity The C-C bond Asymmetry Dispositions and affordances A philosopher’s stone 7. Welcome to the nanoworld Filaments doomed to oblivion Seeing without discovering A soccer ball The nanotube jungle 8. Strategic materials Nuclear graphite Graphene as an academic material A pure surface rich in promises At the limits of materiality Unique and generic PART II Carbon civilisation 9. Traces, stories and memories Carbon as writer Carbon as graphic designer Diamond engraver and reader Radiocarbon dating Carbon archive 10. The resilient rise of fossils Memories of life on Earth A carbon liberation movement? Multiple coals Prometheus unchained Scarcity foretold A hoped-for turnaround 11. The bewitching power of oil The black gold rush A capitalist sorcerer A gift from the Earth Virtues as traps 12. The age of plastics Better things for better living... through chemistry Plastic miracles Reinforced with carbon A continent of waste 13. Working towards a more sustainable economy From black gold to green oil Towards white carbon? Universal machine 14. The carbon market Carbon finance The new universal standard A common measure Why carbon? Carbon pricing PART III Carbon temporalities 15. Carbon cosmogony In the mists of time Improbable carbon Anthropogenic carbon? Carbon as Earthling! Multiple cycles 16. Turbulence in the biosphere. Carbon Redux Selfish carbon? A melting pot Star of the oceans: Emiliana Huxleyi The potential of soils 17. Rethinking time with carbon Anthropocene A grand narrative The accelerating arrow of time Disentangling scales Multiple temporalities. EPILOGUE. The heteronyms of carbon Stories of genius A plurality of modes of existence Ontography Who is carbon? Notes Index

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent is Professor Emeritus at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Sacha Loeve is Associate Professor in Philosophy of science and technology at the University Lyon 3 Jean Moulin.