Carbon Dioxide

I am the little bubble that goes pop. I am the fizz in your drink that tickles your nose when you sip. On a cold, chilly day, I am in your breath, but the white cloud you see is tiny drops of water. Whee. I am all around you, like a secret hug, but I am invisible. Can you guess who I am? I am Carbon Dioxide. That's a big word. My short name is CO2. I am a very special gas, and I love to help things grow. I am a busy, busy bubble.

For a long, long, long time, people did not know I was here. They thought all air was the same air they breathed. Later, a very curious man, a scientist named Joseph Black, studied me. It was way back in the 1750s, a time with horses and carriages. He was looking at limestone, and he found me hiding inside. He saw that I was a different kind of air from the air he breathed. He thought, 'Wow, you are special.'. Later, in the 1770s, another kind scientist named Joseph Priestley found that plants could help make air fresh again. He put a little mint plant in a jar where a candle had gone out and found that the plant helped a candle burn there again. They love having me around.

I am a plant's best friend. It's true. Plants breathe me in, just like you take a big, deep breath of fresh air. They use my bubbly self, some warm yellow sunshine, and a cool drink of water to make their own food. Mmm, yummy. This helps them grow so big and tall and strong. Because I help them, you get sweet, crunchy apples to eat, tall green trees to play under for shade, and pretty, colorful flowers to smell with your nose. I love helping all the green things on our big, wonderful Earth grow happy and healthy.