So whenever the topic of extra terrestrial life comes around people always mention how they could be way more different than we could predict and rather than being carbon based they could be silicon based. My question is why silicon? What makes it possible to sustain life?
In: Biology
imagine trying to build something with basic shapes/building blocks. You could pick something like a pyramid, or maybe a sphere, or tetrahedron. Generally, it would be easiest to build something out of cubes. It gives the most flexibility and variety in how you can build something from the ground up and is super stable. Life on earth is built on carbon, which is sort of like a cube in how neatly it can form bonds, whereas other elements don’t form neat and convenient bonds like carbon. Silicon, however, has very similar properties to carbon. It’s like another kind of cube, and so we can expect a possibility for life to form based on silicon as well, though it’s never been observed.
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