What If We Were Silicon-Based Life Forms?
Carbon and silicon have remarkably similar properties — here’s why life on earth is carbon-based
The idea of parallel universes, time travel, intergalactic cruises and extraterrestrials have been in the curious minds of many scientific experts, and yet they haven’t gone beyond the scope of science fiction. So has the concept of silicon-based life forms.
Life as we know it depends mostly on carbon. Without carbon, there would be no DNA, no proteins, no fats or lipids, sugars or even muscle tissue. In short, without carbon, life would not exist — or, more precisely, life as we know it would not exist.
97% of the human body is made up of six elements, abbreviated CHNOPS — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulphur — and a small mixture of others such as calcium (in our teeth and bones), potassium, iron, sodium, etc. But it is carbon that holds the bonds together, it is carbon that brings complexity and strength to our structures.
But why? Why is carbon the building block of life on earth, and not silicon — silicon, which belongs to the same group as carbon, and lying directly below?
