Carbon is the main atom used in the formation of molecules that build cells using the DNA based reproduction system. The carbon atom have affinity to bond to other atoms, and is widely available in Nature and is a stable atom.
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Carbon forms four bonds in a tetrahedral arrangement around the carbon. This allows a carbon to bond to carbon or other elements with a great variety of shapes. 99% of the mass of a living organism, such as a human, is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus with carbon making up the linking element between all others.
Carbon can from a chain that is linear or branched or form ring structures as well as bonding with other functional groups containing other elements from the periodic table.
Another structural option is carbon can form double, single or even triple bonds with another carbon.
Carbon chains can alternate single and double bonds to form conjugated electron systems that absorb solar energy at specific wavelengths. These molecules function as pigments. The greater the number of conjugated multiple bonds in a molecular compound, the longer the wavelength of the light that the compound will absorb. Chlorophyll is a very large conjugated pigment and essential to photosynthesis and fixation of carbon. Molecules that contain carbon bound to hydrogen are classed as fixed and organic because living organisms can further modify & use them to build all other carbon based metabolic molecules.
When people say that we're carbon-based lifeforms, they mean that all of our important macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids) are built using chains or rings of fixed carbon atoms augmented with a large number of chemical functional groups (special groups of atoms that provide a certain type of functionality to a molecule).
Carbon can from a chain that is linear or branched or form ring structures as well as bonding with other functional groups containing other elements from the periodic table.
Another structural option is carbon can form double, single or even triple bonds with another carbon.
Carbon chains can alternate single and double bonds to form conjugated electron systems that absorb solar energy at specific wavelengths. These molecules function as pigments. The greater the number of conjugated multiple bonds in a molecular compound, the longer the wavelength of the light that the compound will absorb. Chlorophyll is a very large conjugated pigment and essential to photosynthesis and fixation of carbon. Molecules that contain carbon bound to hydrogen are classed as fixed and organic because living organisms can further modify & use them to build all other carbon based metabolic molecules.
When people say that we're carbon-based lifeforms, they mean that all of our important macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids) are built using chains or rings of fixed carbon atoms augmented with a large number of chemical functional groups (special groups of atoms that provide a certain type of functionality to a molecule).
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because that is what they are made of.
that's like asking "Why do cars require steel?"
Well they don't.
Carbon is important for the origin of life because of its structure and bonding capabilities,
but all it does is make life more likely to just happen.
that's like asking "Why do cars require steel?"
Well they don't.
Carbon is important for the origin of life because of its structure and bonding capabilities,
but all it does is make life more likely to just happen.