Carbon is in everything, well everything
living. Biological molecules like
proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides are all basically linked carbons
adorned with other atoms. Carbon is so ubiquitous in living things that when biological
molecules are drawn, carbons aren’t even shown – they’re implied.
The molecule to the left is glucose. Glucose
has 6 carbons but only 1 is shown. Why? Because somebody decided a while back
that there are just too many carbons out there to write them all down. The
molecule to the right is a triglyceride. As you can see when, all of the
carbons are drawn with a C it is quite overwhelming. (The implied carbons at the point of each line in the bottom triglyceride is such a cleaner look )
So why does this matter?
Because there is a lot of carbon out there. Most of it is carbon 12 but some of
it is carbon 14. However, the carbon 14 doesn’t stay carbon 14 for long
(relatively) and that is why it matters. Over time the unstable carbon 14
changes to Nitrogen 14 and then the ratio of carbon 14 to nitrogen 14 reveals
how long the thing with the carbon in it has been around.
More later.
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