Carbon is the most reactive natural element known to science. Natural carbon will connect to almost any other element under the right circumstances and is useful in making a number of substances including those with life-giving properties. It does so because it has a number of sub-atomic "hooks" called gluons. A process similar to molecular bonding lets scientists limit those gluons, effectively rounding off or bending back the hooks so that the carbon atoms are almost completely nonreactive. This creates a substance called Neutral Carbon which is the perfect substance for controlling the unstable solium particles. When solium is fused with natural carbon atoms and the carbon's remaining gluons deactivated, a hybrid molecule is created which can then be manipulated and used in relative safety.
Pure neutral carbon will inhibit most nuclear, chemical and biological reactions so it is useful in a number of industrial applications. Exposure to neutral carbon dust will cause tremendous problems to the health of most lifeforms; inhalations causes the victim's blood and breathing functions to cease being capable of processing oxygen and the subject will die shortly if not given emergency medical treatment promptly. Depending on the amount of exposure and the nature of the lifeform, this process may take as little as five or ten minutes. Application of pure oxygen may extend this by double, but no more. Fortunately, neutral carbon, when formed into rods or panels or pellets for transport are extremely stable and do not shed dust readily; it takes a powerful disruptive force, say an explosion, to break down the bonds that hold neutral carbon together. Still, because of this possibility, it is usually treated as a potentially hazardous substance.
In the early days of neutral carbon use, people exposed to the dust would have perminant damage to their lungs, so much so that cancers and other respiratory diseases would plague victims long after the initial exposure was treated. In modern times, microsurgical repairs are possible to alleviate the worst of the damage.
