carbon
The main chemical components of living organisms are known as organic compounds . Organic compounds are molecules built around the element carbon C . Living things are made up of very large molecules. These large molecules are called macromolecules because macro means large; they are made by smaller molecules bonding together. Our body gets these smaller molecules, the "building blocks" or monomers , of organic molecules from the food we eat. Which organic molecules do you recognize from the list below?.