Carbon is an essential element for life on Earth and parts of each of the cells in our bodies are made from it. The carbon cycle shows how atoms of this element can exist within different compounds at different times.
All cells - whether animal, plant or bacteria - contain carbon, because they all contain proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Plant cell walls, for example, are made of cellulose - a carbohydrate.
Carbon is passed from the atmosphere, as carbon dioxide, to living things, passed from one organism to the next in complex molecules, and returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide again. This is known as the carbon cycle.
Hydrogen bonding is important because it is crucial to all life on Earth. Here are three reasons why hydrogen bonding is important. DNA has a double-helix structure because hydrogen bonds hold together the base pairs in the middle. Without hydrogen bonds, DNA would have to exist as a different structure.
