Every living cell is built from atomic combinations the include carbon and hydrogen. It has been known since ancient times.
Carbon makes diamonds, charcoal and graphite.
Carbon's unique chemistry allows it to combine with many various elements in diverse ways. Graphite for writing pencils is composed of carbon. For generations diamond, graphite, and charcoal were considered to be the only pure forms of carbon. In 1985, a group of discoverers found a third fourth of carbon, and dubbed it appropriately buckminsterfullerene, because this unusual molecule was composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a hollow sphere. The molecule's appearance bore a phenomenal resemblance to the architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes.