Biological Role and Toxicity
The first element in group 14, carbon, is uniquely important in the chemistry of life. It is a key structural constituent of the many classes of compound which make up biological systems, such as lipids, carbohydrates and proteins. Whilst these compounds also contain other elements such as oxygen and hydrogen, it is the ability of carbon to form stable chains of multiple carbon-carbon bonds that is crucial in allowing such an enormous diversity of different biological molecules to exist. The oxidation and reduction of carbon to different oxidation states is the fundamental basis of the reactions that constitute biochemistry.
In contrast, the other elements of the group are largely absent from biochemistry, with toxicity to most organisms increasing down the group. Lead in particular is a serious environmental poison.
Read more about this topic: Carbon Group
Famous quotes containing the words biological and/or role:
“Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
—Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
“A few [women] warrant our attention not because they have the answer but because they have rejected the mentality that insists there must be one answer. What makes them role models is not how much or how little they work, how many or how few hats they wear, but rather how well they understand, and accept, that for all rewards there will be commensurate sacrifice; for all gains, some loss; for any pleasure, some pain.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)