what is it about carbons atomic structure that makes it the building block of life
Carbon-based life "What we normally think of as 'life' is based on chains of carbon atoms, with a few other atoms, such as nitrogen or phosphorus", per Stephen Hawking in a 2008 lecture, "carbon [...] has the richest chemistry." [5] The most important characteristics of carbon as a basis for the chemistry of life are, that it has four valence bonds, and that the energy required to make or break a bond is at an appropriate level for building molecules, which are stable and reactive.[citation needed] Carbon atoms bond readily to other carbon atoms; this allows the building of arbitrarily long complex molecules and polymers.[citation needed]