Word: elementals
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...what makes a champion - and in Spain's case, so many? For some, the country's victory streak is largely coincidence. "In sports, there's always an element of luck," says Toni Nadal, Rafael Nadal's coach and uncle. "Rafael could have beaten Federer last year and moved past him, just as he could have lost to Federer this year at Wimbledon. Circumstances and details shape you and in a given competition shape the outcome...
...evoking the hardships of Communist rule. The show fast-forwarded through the glories of ancient Chinese civilization: the invention of gunpowder and movable type, the building of the Great Wall. The overriding message, though delivered, admittedly, with the earnest phraseology of Chinese officialdom, was clear. "Imbued with the finest element of Eastern flavor," stated Liu Qi, the president of the Beijing Organizing Committee, "this grand gala will act as a showcase of a 5,000-year-old civilization...
...think of carbon, the first word we associate with it is emissions, a concept that evokes a tinge of illegality, as if emitting a mere molecule of CO2 were a crime. But as Eric Roston points out in his engaging new book, The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat, C is about more than just CO2. "If you think about carbon only in terms of climate change, you're missing out," he says. "If you want to learn about the world, the fastest way is to follow the carbon." (Listen to Roston talk...
...Tour de France. "Everywhere you looked, you had these stories that dealt with carbon," Roston says. "I wanted to get context on it, to get some understanding on the work I'd been doing." Propelled by what he calls a "foggy Star Trek sense that carbon is the central element of life and civilization," Roston left TIME and began to pursue his ideas...
...result is The Carbon Age, a kind of biography of the atomic element that is, as Roston points out, central to our world. "In anything bigger than an atom and smaller than a star, you're going to find carbon," he says. That includes all forms of life on the Earth, which is, as Mr. Spock used to say, carbon-based. That's because on a molecular level, carbon is a wonderful chemical joiner. Seemingly without prejudice, carbon atoms will combine with almost any other element to form the more complicated building blocks of life. "It's atomic Velcro," says...