From the Book - 1st U.S. ed.
Prologue: The strange case of carbon
Pt. 1 : The natural. Out of the frying pan : carbon after the Big Bang ; Dancers and the dance : the origins of life ; The flood : molecular fossils and the great greenhouse collapse ; Inherent brutality : predators, defenses, and the ocean carbon cycle ; The witness : CO2 and a tree of life ; Body heat : running on carbohydrates and hydrocarbons
Pt. 2 : The unnatural. Greased lightning : carbon and the car ; The physical restraint on fantasy : the art in carbon science ; Faster than a speeding bullet : antiballistic carbon ; The bell jar : humans and the hundredfold acceleration of the carbon cycle ; Instructions not included : the potential of biological fuels ; The adventures ahead : life with carbon, civilization without?