Solved cryptogram
Carbon forms four bonds at once, which is why it can build chains long enough to carry life.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
Four is the useful number. An element with two bonds can only make a chain, and one with six is too crowded to be flexible. Carbon can link to three other carbons and still have a bond left over for something else, which allows rings, branches and backbones of arbitrary length. That is why the chemistry of living things is carbon chemistry rather than anything else.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 73 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length73 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryeasy, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryeasy, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 71 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 72 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters