THE NOSY MONSTER

and the carbon stars

Jessica Gómez Álvarez

The Nosy Monster
Project FECYT FCT-14-8647/ IYCr2014
Laura Roces
laura.uniovi@gmail.com
Santiago García-Granda
sgg@uniovi.es

Design
Raquel Álvarez Díaz
raquelhojasrojas@gmail.com

Spanish original text and artwork

Jessica Gómez Álvarez
hablamebajitomama@gmail.com

Translation
Marta Alfonso Perales
marta.alfonso@gmail.com
The Nosy Monster
Revision of translation
James Vyvyan Dyson and the carbon stars
Legal deposit
AS 00675-2015

Digital version for free distribution. Its use and communication is allowed for
informational, non-profit purposes. Protected contents. Neither transformations
nor derivatives are not allowed without the express consent by the author and the
Jessica Gómez Álvarez
project coordinator.
Mati, the Nosy Monster, is very happy today, because his mum is ta-
king him to the lab where she works. They amble along, enjoying the
rain. And Mati, who is a very nosy monster, can't stop asking ques-
tions on the way:

'What are puddles made of, mum?'

'Puddles, Mati, are made of rain water, and the mud we step on.'

'And what is mud made of, mum?'

'Mud is made of water and earth, Mati. Like the earth we live on.'

'And what is earth made of, mum?'

'Earth, Mati, is made of many things. Metals, like the iron in cars, mi-
nerals, like the calcium in our bones…'

'What about us, mum? What are we made of?'

'Wow!' cried Mati's mum. 'That's a really cool question!'

And the Nosy Monster's mum explained to her son what monsters
are made of:

'Look, Mati. See how it's raining today? Can you see the little drops
of water falling in dribs and drabs on the ground? Some drops are
very big. Others are just so small we can't even see them. Well, once
it rained like this, just like now, but it wasn't water that was raining...
Many, many million years ago, there was only one star in the sky. A
big one. A very big one. And a bright one. A very bright one. So big
and so bright that one day it blew up into thousands and thousands
of millions of dust particles.
That stardust travelled ALL over the universe to become everything
we know today. That stardust turned into planets, smaller stars, co-
mets, asteroids… And some of that stardust rained down on our
planet.

Among all that stardust, among all those little drops raining down,
there was a very special particle that looked exactly the same as all
the rest when they were travelling across the universe, but became
the most important of all when it landed on our planet:

CARBON
And do you know why it’s the most
important of all? Because every single
life that has ever existed on our planet,
from the tiniest plant to the biggest
dinosaur, is made of carbon.
When carbon arrived floating in all that stardust, it gradually settled
all around the world, in lots of different places: sometimes very, very
high places, sometimes very, very deep ones. Sometimes it remained
pure, and sometimes it would mix with whatever was around.
When carbon mixed with little impurities in the ground, such as sul-
phur and some metals, it became COAL, which we use to light
cookers and chimneys.
When carbon can't find anything around to mix up with, it has no And when they're all neatly in order, they become
choice but to stay on its own. All the particles gather together close
CARBON CRYSTALS!
to each other, very close to each other.
Sometimes, those crystals form layers, and then the layers
build on one another, and another, and another, and…
VOILÀ! Carbon becomes your pencil lead, which is

GRAPHITE
Other times, those carbon crystals are in a place that’s so deep and
the earth above them is so heavy that they just get squeezed and
squeezed and squeezed… And then they

TURN INTO A DIAMOND!

Other times, they mysteriously appear in the most unexpected and
haphazard places, such as in candle soot or in a fancy laboratory.
And they get ball-shaped!

Those balls are called FULLERENES, and can be used in

loads of experiments.
And you know what? Sometimes CARBON mixes with many
other elements, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium and many,
many other things, in a very, very messy way, and becomes…

US!
'Oh, mum! I understand now!' said the Nosy Monster. 'That's why
you're always telling me I'm a mess!'

The Nosy Monster's mum laughed:

'Ha ha ha! Maybe a little bit, Mati. But, even if you're a mess, never
forget that, deep inside, you're made of coal, diamonds and stars.'