Why are we considered "Carbon-based"...?

Question

Life forms when our body is something like 90% water and water is just hydrogen and oxygen?

No. I get the fact that carbon is the backbone for all life on Earth. And I know carbon bonds to all the building blocks of life(Oxygen, hyrdogen, and nitrogen). What I am saying is why classify us by an element that makes up less than 10% of us?

Answer 1

Because the unique part of us, the molecules that aren't found everywhere, lakes and what not, are carbon based. It makes sense. It's not that we're carbon-based, it's that we're carbon based LIFE.

Answer 2

We are not 90% water for one thing. And, water is something that sort of fills the empty spaces. We are considered "carbon-based" because organic molecules make up the stuff in our body that is most important: DNA, proteins, etc. With out the proteins that make the structural parts of our body, we could just be a pile of goo.

Answer 3

You were close to the answer in your quetsion. Carbon is what bonds to all the oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, phospohorus and other elements to make all the important compounds and molecules in our bodies. Most of these have a carbon backbone with the other elements dangling off to the sides/top/bottom. These dangling atoms are what actually do the chemistry to make us 'live', but since everything is tethered to the carbon backbones we are commonly called carbon-based.

Answer 4

What people don't consider is the fact or problem that humans are living longer. Sure we put our elderly who can't take care of themselves into a home, but never think when's enough is enough. When have they crossed over from still having individual dignity to just lying on a bed waiting to die. I feel we treat our animals with more respect than our elders. (I'm not talking about the ones that are still active and having fun - I have a few aunts in California that are well into their 80's and still extremely active.) I'm refering to the ones we hold onto who are living in constant pain and can't do anything for themselves. We need to start learning how to let go and say goodbye to these people and give them a pain free death, just like our animals that suffer the same as they do.

Answer 5

The dry portion of our bodies is mostly carbon.

But more impostant than that, our food intake, food "burning". and our waste output is carbon based.

We breathe in oxygen. Our bodies combust the carbon portion of our food in a controlled manner. We breathe out carbon dioxide.

Answer 6

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RE:
Why are we considered "Carbon-based"...?
Life forms when our body is something like 90% water and water is just hydrogen and oxygen?

Answer 7

yes we're carbon based. most of us is water, but that's keeping the carbon based part alive

Answer 8

carbon is a major strucural component of our body.. thats why. our diet n stuff is still carbon.

Answer 9

carbon is the base for the usefull parts of the human body.... the water is more or less 'filling'

Answer 10

because our amino acids, protiens, body tissue, etc is all made of carbon structures. true, water is important, but it has to be held in by something ...