Symphony in C

Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything

De: Robert M. Hazen

Narrado por: Paul Brion

An enchanting biography of the most resonant - and most necessary - chemical element on Earth. Carbon. It's in the fibers in your hair, the timbers in your walls, the food that you eat, and the air that you breathe. It's worth billions as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are still mysteries yet 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?

With poetic storytelling, earth scientist Robert Hazen leads us on a global journey through the origin and evolution of life's most ubiquitous element. The story unfolds in four movements - Earth, Air, Fire, and Water - and transports us through 14 billion years of cosmic history.

From the archives of Harvard to the cliffs of Scotland and into the precious metal mines of Namibia, Symphony in C is a sweeping chronicle of carbon: the most essential element on Earth.

©2019 Robert M. Hazen (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Interesting

Learned a lot. Never thought about it. Little long. Wish it gave a good summary. Overall good book

Excellent.

A terrific review of carbon, creation and life. Not a scientific treatise, easily understood by the educated layperson. The only nitpick is Hazen’s fetish for giving biographies of every one of the dozens of scientists mentioned in the text. This is surely flattering to his academic colleagues, but unnecessary dross for this reader. I found myself skipping past those paragraphs with no loss of comprehension. The narrative reading was excellent, though ponderous. Listeners will benefit from speeding it up to 1.2 speed.

Dr. Hazen makes a Celebrity of Element 6

I am not a Chemist or Chemical Engineer. But I do like to mix up some elective learning to my education in Systems Engineering. An engineer to the core, I wish I could have majored in at least 3 engineering majors and One science major. I read stuff like this because I love it. This is not a text book, it is something much better.

This is an excellent, finely crafted book and the organization is brilliant. It covers where carbon comes from in star life cycles. Where carbon resides on Earth. From the earth Core and Mantle to the atmosphere. So you get astrophysics, planetary science, geology, chemistry, oceanic, and atmospheric science in one great book.

I found myself teaching my kids about carbon after reading the book and the kids (all little elementary age kids) asked, "Dad, why do you like Carbon so much?" It's all because this book is so cool and interesting. 5-Stars, Easy.

The Most Detailed Story of Geological Earth

I love everything this author writes and does especially The Great Courses...very informative and we'll written..I've learned more about our Earth than anything I learned in school..always fun to keep learning.

Beautiful Listen

As a geoscientist who worked around the Deep Carbon Observatory for much of my career I appreciated this book immensely. It went into parts of the Carbon Cycle I knew about and introduced me to others I did not! Only feedback that is not perfect is the mispronunciation of common geological terms. It just was hard to hear, not something that most people would pick up on.