The Adventures of Carbo the Carbon Atom
Carbo the carbon atom was enjoying the fresh air of a beautiful
spring day. He was hanging out with his two best buddies, the
oxygen twins. They had their own secret club called “CO2
Madness”. They were inseparable, those three!
“What a lovely day” declared Carbo. Little did he know that his
life was about to change drastically!
“Whoa!” said Carbo. “Here we go… into a blade of grass! I
haven’t been part of photosynthesis for a few years!”
Carbo and the oxygen twins were quickly combined with water
vapour in the leaf to form glucose (a sugar molecule). “mmmm”,
thought Carbo, “I forgot how SWEET it was to be part of glucose!”
A nearby deer started munching on the grass, and before long,
Carbo found himself in the stomach of the deer. He hoped that
he would be released back to the atmosphere by cellular
respiration, but no luck. Carbo got stored away in the muscle
tissue of the deer.
Carbo enjoyed his time inside the deer. But Carbo noticed that
the deer seemed to be slowing down after several years, and then
one day it died. “Oh no!” said Carbo. This was a very low point in
Carbo’s life. He was getting bored inside the deer, and was
thankful when some decomposers finally came around and
released him back into the soil.
Carbo’s next stage of life was very stable as he settled down for a
few million years. He was in good spirits, considering the
enormous amount of pressure he was under! (Literally… he was
being compacted into coal!)
Just when Carbo thought that life was getting a little dull, he was
sucked up a pipe and starting whizzing through a factory. “Wow”
thought Carbo… this is hot stuff! And I mean, really hot! I’m
burning up! As the heat started to get unbearable, Carbo shot out
of smokestack, and to his amazement, he found himself paired up
with the oxygen twins again! “Hey guys!” exclaimed Carbo. It’s
great to have the CO2 madness club back again!”
Carbo spent the next few days lazily floating through the
atmosphere with the oxygen twins. He was quite enjoying the
scenery… the mountains and hills were especially beautiful. The
landscape soon changed, though, and he found himself floating
above a wide expanse of water.
“This must be the ocean!” thought Carbo. He dropped down to
get a closer look, and before he knew it, he was dissolved in the
water. “Ooooh! It’s cold in here! But it is fun to swim around!”
said Carbo. As Carbo was swimming around, he reacted with the
seawater to form carbonate, which a snail quickly took advantage
of to make a shell. Carbo was happy to be part of a living thing
again. “I feel like my life has purpose again! I like being a
protective shell for this snail!”
Just like the deer of long ago, though, the snail’s life also came to
an end… but Carbo lived on. The carbonate shell drifted down to
the ocean floor, where it rested. Over the next few years, Carbo
was buried, and under this pressure, he became limestone rock!
Carbo enjoyed hanging out with tons of other carbon atoms in the
limestone. He couldn’t believe how many of them there were!
This period of his life lasted a long long time.
Finally, one day, Carbo felt uneasy as everything began to
tremble. Once again, it got very hot. Carbo closed his eyes as he
went flying up and out of the rock! A volcano had erupted,
releasing him back to the atmosphere. It felt good to get a breath
of fresh air again.
And so the adventures of Carbo will continue. I wonder where he
will end up next.