Carbon Shows Us That We Have Meaning & Purpose

Carbon is essential for life.

A remarkable number of many different types of molecules are necessary for us to exist. Not only do we need a tremendous diversity of molecules with widely varying properties, but these molecules must also be able to form, react, break apart, reform, and interact with each other in very specific and highly coordinated way. The only element that is able to do this is carbon. Only carbon is able to make the necessary structures for life. Only the structures made from carbon are also able to interact in the necessary way.

 

There are five reasons why that is the case:

1.     Carbon forms stable bonds with itself. The only element that can form stable chains of atoms is carbon. The unique stability of carbon-carbon bonds allows an almost unlimited number of organic molecules of almost any size.

2.     Carbon can form up to four bonds.

Nitrogen can make three bonds, oxygen can make two bonds, silicon can make four bonds like carbon, but there are other reasons why it doesn’t work as the basis for life. The ability to form multiple bonds is crucial to make the molecules needed for life. One Example are lipids. Every cell membrane – even the cell membrane of the simplest life form - is made up of many different types of lipids. To give the cell membranes the properties it needs, there must be a mixture of lipids of varying lengths and lipids with differing number of double bonds and triple bonds. Because it can make 2, 3, or 4 bonds, carbon has the ability to make all the varying types of lipids needed for life.

 

3.     Carbon not only forms multiple bonds with itself, but also with other atoms

Silicon can also form 4 bonds, but Silicon has a difficult time forming multiple bonds with the other atoms necessary for life – for example, silicon can’t form a double bond with oxygen to make a molecule like carbon dioxide.

 

4.     Energy levels of carbon bonds are just right for biochemical manipulation. Remember, the molecules needed for life must also be able to form, react, break apart, reform, and interact with each other in very specific and highly coordinated way. They have to be strong enough for the molecules to last, but at the same time weak enough to allow enzymes to break the bonds during the reactions necessary for life. Carbon bonds are what is called “meta-stable.” If bonds were stronger (like with the bonds between non-metals), then reactions needed to life could not happen. If the bonds were weaker, then the molecules wouldn’t last very long. This metastable property of carbon bonds just so happens most efficiently in the same temperature range that water is a liquid. Is this just a coincidence?

 

5.     The energy levels of the covalent bonds that carbon forms with other nonmetals to form the molecules needed for life are similar.

Carbon molecules can easily shuffle around oxygen, nitrogen, and itself because of the energy similarities of these bonds. Silicon has bond energies that are too far apart. An oxygen atom can’t easily be removed from silicon and replaced with another atom – the bond energies are too different.

 

How did we get carbon? 

A few minutes after the big bang, the only elements in the universe were hydrogen and helium with tiny amounts of lithium and beryllium. A few hundred million years later, stars formed that could make the heavier elements. Most stars fuse hydrogen into helium. Once a star has made helium, it should be easy (in larger stars) to add successive heliums to get beryllium and then carbon. Stars can continue to build up the larger elements by fusing smaller ones:  H+H=He, He+H=Li, He+He=Be, Be+He=C, Be+Be=O

 

There are two problems with the formation of carbon:

1.     Three heliums could combine to from a carbon, but it is too unlikely for 3 heliums to all collide in the same place at the same time, so the formation of carbon must come from beryllium and helium.

2.     The problem is that when beryllium and helium collide with enough energy to merge, there is too much energy for a carbon to form. For beryllium and helium to combine they must collide at a high velocity to overcome repulsion from the positive charges of their protons. They must collide at high energy to be able to get close enough for strong nuclear force to take over. If the colliding beryllium and helium had precisely the same energy carbon, then a carbon nucleus could form. But this isn’t what happens – the colliding beryllium and helium have too much energy, so this collision looks as if it should just fall apart and not form carbon.

 

Therefore, we’re stuck: 3 heliums colliding is too unlikely and a helium + beryllium collision has too much energy. So, how do we get carbon? It has to do with a property called resonance.

 

The formation of carbon was a mystery until the 1950’s. In 1953, Frederick Hoyle reasoned that the only way carbon could form was if there was a resonance state of carbon equal to beryllium + helium + some extra energy. This would mean that carbon could form at that higher energy state and then just release the extra energy to get to the ground state of carbon without falling apart. This convenient resonance dramatically increases the production of carbon in stars. 

 

What we think happens: Two helium collide to form a very short-lived beryllium, when this collides with another helium, a carbon atom is produced with energy equal to one of the stable resonance states of carbon. This carbon then releases the extra energy in the form of gamma radiation to become a ground state carbon nucleus. There just happens to be a resonance level of carbon equal to that of beryllium + helium + some extra energy. Is this a coincidence?

 

The resonance levels of carbon depend on three things:

1.     Strong Nuclear Force – the force that holds the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus.

2.     Electromagnetic Force – the force that exists between charges

3.     Mass of Quarks – quarks are particles that make up protons and neutrons

 

All three of these properties have a limited range of values that would still allow carbon to form:

1.     Strong Nuclear Force (0.4% range)

2.     Electromagnetic Force (4% range)

3.     Mass of Quarks (1 part in 10²³ relative to all the possible masses a quark could have) This means that if the mass of a quark were this tiny fraction larger or this tiny fraction less, there would be no carbon. To imagine how small this is, you have a 1 out of 10²³ chance of being struck by lightning 2.6 billion times each second, every second, over a lifetime of 80 years

 

The conditions necessary for just the presence of carbon in our universe are exquisitely fine-tuned. The properties that carbon has are fine-tuned for human life to exist – it looks as if carbon was designed specifically to be the basis for life.

 

Why is this important?

It looks like Humans & the universe are not an accident. A reasonable conclusion from the science of carbon is that the universe was designed specifically for us to exist. If that is the case, someone had to design it! 

The only thing we know that can design is a mind that is capable of making free-will decisions; a person. This would mean that the most fundamental fact in the universe is a person; personhood came first! Christians believe that this person is God & that the universe was made by God for His own reasons. This gives us intrinsic and objective value. This gives us meaning and purpose that are grounded in God’s reasons for creating us! We have value, meaning and purpose that is independent of what we are able to accomplish or what we do or don’t do. God’s reasons for creating the universe and creating us culminated in the person of Jesus. Jesus came to Earth to mend the fractured relationship between us and God. Because we constantly break God’s law, we are separated from God. So, God provided a way to repair this relationship through the person of Jesus. God, the creator of the universe, wants a relationship with you and you can have that relationship through the person of Jesus.

 

The exquisite fine tuning of the formation of carbon and the amazing properties of carbon that look as if they are designed specifically for life – for us – to exist can point us to the person of God. God cares about us. He cares about you so much that He wants to have a relationship with you and you can have that through the person of Jesus.