Every form of life which has ever been discovered regardless of its size or how it metabolizes energy has one thing in common.

They are all based on the element carbon.

Carbon is the most important building block for life.

It holds a unique place on the periodic table,

and it can combine with itself and other elements in so many different ways

that there is an entire branch of chemistry devoted to it.

Learn more about the element carbon, its importance, and

future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Carmen is a very special element.

It's the sixth element on the periodic table,

and it's estimated to be the fourth most abundant element in the universe,

behind hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.

However, it's only the 15th most abundant element in the Earth's crust.

If you remember back to my episode on Lithium,

elemental abundance after hydrogen and helium doesn't necessarily correspond perfectly with

atomic number. Carbon is created inside of stars in a process known as the

triple alpha process. In the triple alpha process three helium atoms fused together to create carbon.

There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon, carbon 12, carbon 13, and carbon 14.

Carbon 12 and 13 are stable, but carbon 14 is unstable and undergoes radioactive decay.

And that is why carbon 14 is used for the dating of objects.

I've previously done an entire episode on radiometric dating but suffice it to say

that by looking at the ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 14 you can determine the age of

something. Carbon 14 gets locked in when something is alive and then decreases over time.

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