Carbon

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 Jean Moulin University Lyon 3.

"Carbon: A Biography is brilliant. Commonly invoked in reductive logics as ruinous of earthly life, carbon, in Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve's masterful hands, transforms into polymorphic matter. With expansive erudition, the authors unfold carbon's multiply contingent materializations – in chemistry and cosmology, technology and the arts, industry and geopolitics, and geology and biology. Instead of an isolated, inert entity to be quantified and captured, carbon becomes a wondrous, wily and generative element whose affordances and capacities arise through complex relationality. Under Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve's guidance, carbon's multiple modes of existence compel a renewed urgency for inhabiting our climate crisis otherwise."—Suzana Sawyer, University of California, Davis"Travelling a course from the stars to the underground and from deep time to uncertain climate futures, Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve provide readers with an unparalleled elemental biography on that most fundamental of substances: carbon. Prepare to pass through an atom to encounter fossils and fire, coal and gases, crystals and nanoworlds, as the multiplicity of carbon dances into being in this fascinating and essential study."—Jennifer Gabrys, University of Cambridge"Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve are on a rescue mission to save carbon from its one-dimensional much-maligned role in public life today. And carbon has never been in better hands. This book, like carbon itself, is an allotrope: guidebook, philosophy, geomythology, critique and biography of carbon. The authors navigate the immense centrality of carbon to human life, from Mephitus to Lavoisier, from the periodic table to the carbon–carbon bond, from macro to nano, from common measure to common enemy. Bensaude-Vincent and Loeve are your guides to carbon's pluriverse."—Christopher M. Kelty, UCLA"Ambitious in scope and aspiration, this book transforms our ideas of what substance 'biographies' can achieve, exploring the variety of carbon's ways of being, narrated across cosmological, planetary and human histories. Deft in analysis, original in its interpretive concepts, it is engagingly and accessibly written – highly recommended."—John R. R. Christie, University of Oxford"Carbon: A Biography is a profoundly interdisciplinary exploration of an element at the heart of life, technology, and culture. The book takes readers on a journey that transcends traditional scientific narratives, intertwining history, philosophy, and material culture to illuminate the multifaceted roles of carbon in shaping our world."—Leonardo Anatrini, Bulletin for the History of Chemistry

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsPrologue: Why write a biography of carbon?PART I The Invention of Carbon1. MephitisA thing with many namesA genius of placeGeomythologiesAn elixir of youth2. An indescribable airFrom mephitic air to 'sylvester spirit'From 'sylvester spirit' to fixed airFrom fixed air to carbonic acid3. Between diamond and coalThe diamond enigmaA creature of nomenclatureCoal's footprintWord battles4. An exemplary elementA textbook exampleA material abstractionA metaphysical substance5. Carbon liberates itselfOne among othersTwo or three chemistries?A quartet of elementsAn exchange centreA standard of measurement6. A relational beingAtomicityThe C-C bondAsymmetryDispositions and affordancesA philosopher's stone7. Welcome to the nanoworldFilaments doomed to oblivionSeeing without discoveringA soccer ballThe nanotube jungle8. Strategic materialsNuclear graphiteGraphene as an academic materialA pure surface rich in promisesAt the limits of materialityUnique and genericPART II Carbon civilization9. Traces, stories and memoriesCarbon as writerCarbon as graphic designerDiamond engraver and readerRadiocarbon datingCarbon archive10. The resilient rise of fossilsMemories of life on EarthA carbon liberation movement?Multiple coalsPrometheus unchainedScarcity foretoldA hoped-for turnaround11. The bewitching power of oilThe black gold rush A capitalist sorcererA gift from the EarthVirtues as traps12. The age of plasticsBetter things for better living... through chemistryPlastic miraclesReinforced with carbonA continent of waste13. Working towards a more sustainable economyFrom black gold to green oilTowards white carbon?Universal machine14. The carbon marketCarbon financeThe new universal standardA common measureWhy carbon?Carbon pricingPART III Carbon temporalities15. Carbon cosmogonyIn the mists of timeImprobable carbonAnthropogenic carbon?Carbon as Earthling!Multiple cycles16. Turbulence in the biosphereCarbon ReduxSelfish carbon?A melting potStar of the oceans: Emiliana HuxleyiThe potential of soils17. Rethinking time with carbonAnthropoceneA grand narrativeThe accelerating arrow of timeDisentangling scalesMultiple temporalitiesEPILOGUE. The heteronyms of carbonStories of geniusA plurality of modes of existenceOntographyWho is carbon?NotesIndex