A Chemist’s Book Changed John Barnett’s Life.

Chemist and writer Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table—a memoir in the form of short stories about elements—closes with a chapter called “Carbon,” which tracks a single atom through time and space. Graphic designer and illustrator John Barnett retells the story in his own words, accompanied by pencil drawings that capture moments in the atom’s journey from its birth in a star to a nerve ending in his brain.