About the book: 2021 / Robert Hazen is an extraordinary scientist, music lover and successful musician, and this determines the structure of his book, repeating the principles of construction symphonies. Its leitmotif is chemical element No. 6 in the Periodic Table, or carbon, without which life is unthinkable, from its very origins to everything that surrounds us in the modern world. The book’s time span is just under 14 billion years, from the origin of the Universe to the present day . And throughout almost all of this time, carbon plays its unique part in the symphony of evolution. The deep carbon cycle, carbon mineralogy, volcanic gases, diamond and graphite, fossil fuels, nanotubes, climate, fossil remains of animals and plants are just a small part of the topics covered in this incredibly educational book.