The Carbon Atom

 Carbon is found in many different compounds. It is in the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the cosmetics you use and the
gasoline that fuels your car.
 Carbon is the sixth most abundant element in the universe. In addition, carbon is a very special element because it plays a
dominant role in the chemistry of life.
 Carbon, discovered in prehistory and was known to the ancients, who manufactured it by burning organic material making
charcoal.
 There are four known allotopes of cabon: amorphous, graphite, diamond and fullerene. A new (fifth) allotrope of carbon
was recently found. It is a spongy solid that is extremely lightweight and, unusually, attracted to magnets. The inventors of
this new form of carbon -- a magnetic carbon nanofoam-- say it could may someday find medical applications (see review
article from Nature)

http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/c_atom.htm

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=carbon+valence+electron+configuration&rlz=1C1GIWA_enPH733PH733&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ve

d=0ahUKEwiqte-n_6HWAhWIVLwKHQnCDHAQ_AUICigB&biw=1538&bih=785#imgrc=T731sh0YUj_0KM:

Third slide:  so this ability makes the carbon a unique atom.

Carbon nanofoams (CNFs) were prepared by air cooling the pyrolysate of high purified acetylene gas. Each particle of the nanofoam
was constructed by 2 to 4 mutually nested carbon balls with approximately 300 nm in diameter. Carbon sheets with negative
Gaussian curvature are present in the carbon ball, especially at the fringe of the ball. Undoubted room temperature ferromagnetism
with saturation magnetization of 0.11 emu/g at 300 K in CNFs can be attributed to the carbon balls themselves instead of impurities.
The origin of the ferromagnetism was discussed in terms of the special nested structure in CNFs.

GRAPHITE  soft allotrope of carbon.

Diamond  hardest mineral,

Fifth slide  are rare terrestrially, but of central importance because all known life is based on organic compounds,
 life processes.
magnetic carbon nanofoam