Page 158 - The Creation Of The Universe

156 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Olive oil, meat, and brown sugar: Everything we eat is
made up of different arrangements of hydrogen, oxy-
gen, and carbon with the addition of other atoms such
as nitrogen.

oxygen not so "eager" to share electrons with one another, life would in-
deed be impossible.
The thing that makes it possible for carbon to form these bonds is a
property that chemists call "metastability", the characteristic of having only
a slight margin of stability. The biochemist J. B. S. Haldane describes
metastability thus:
A metastable molecule means one that can liberate free energy by a
transformation, but is stable enough to last a long time unless it is ac-

tivated by heat, radiation, or union with a catalyst. 89
What this somewhat technical definition means is that carbon has a
rather unique structure, as a result of which, it is quite easy for it to enter
into covalent bonds under normal conditions.