Splitting the Difference

When two atoms both want electrons just as badly, neither can win a tug-of-war. So they compromise and share.

Covalent bonds quietly build life itself. DNA, proteins, and the sugars you burn for energy are all just atoms sharing electrons in precise patterns.

Change the pattern and you change everything. The exact same carbon atoms form soft, slippery pencil graphite in one arrangement and the hardest natural material, diamond, in another.