Table of Contents
- 1 Is silicon a living organism?
- 2 What properties does silicon share with carbon that would make silicon-based life more likely than say neon based life or aluminum based life?
- 3 What are 3 things we use silicon for?
- 4 What would silicon-based life breathe out like?
- 5 Could there be silicon-based life on Titan?
- 6 Is it possible to chemically manipulate silicon?
Is silicon a living organism?
“No living organism is known to put silicon-carbon bonds together, even though silicon is so abundant, all around us, in rocks and all over the beach,” says Jennifer Kan, a postdoctoral scholar in Arnold’s lab and lead author of the new study. Silicon is the second most abundant element in Earth’s crust.
What properties does silicon share with carbon that would make silicon-based life more likely than say, neon-based life or aluminum-based life? Si has four valence electrons, the same number as carbon. It would clearly do this much better than neon (with no valence electrons) or aluminum (with three valence electrons).
What are 3 things we use silicon for?
Silicon is one of the most useful elements to mankind. Most is used to make alloys including aluminium-silicon and ferro-silicon (iron-silicon). These are used to make dynamo and transformer plates, engine blocks, cylinder heads and machine tools and to deoxidise steel. Silicon is also used to make silicones.
Where does silicon come from naturally?
It is found in rocks, sand, clays and soils, combined with either oxygen as silicon dioxide, or with oxygen and other elements as silicates. Silicon’s compounds are also found in water, in the atmosphere, in many plants, and even in certain animals.
Is silicon-based life even possible?
And, because silicon and carbon share certain chemical similarities, it has led to science fiction authors floating the possibility of silicon-based life. Is there a kernel of fact in that fiction, is it just theoretically possible, but practically unlikely?
What would silicon-based life breathe out like?
When we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The chemical formula for carbon dioxide is CO2. The corresponding silicon molecule is silicon dioxide, or SiO2, which is commonly known as rock. So, silicon-based life on Earth would be breathing out sand.
Could there be silicon-based life on Titan?
Titan as seen by infrared sensors on Cassini. But not all is lost for the possibility of silicon-based life. On an extreme world like Titan, there is no oxygen in the atmosphere and all water is frozen solid, so silicon is not oxidized right away into inert rock.
Is it possible to chemically manipulate silicon?
Scientists have long known that life on Earth is capable of chemically manipulating silicon. For instance, microscopic particles of silicon dioxide called phytoliths can be found in grasses and other plants, and photosynthetic algae known as diatoms incorporate silicon dioxide into their skeletons.