Explain the possibility of silicon based life to me

Oxygen + carbon is a gas.
Oxygen + silicon is a solid.
This is a big hurdle for silicon based life.

>>9038256
We are made of oxygen + carbon and are solids.

>>9038258
I don't feel very solid

>>9038265
I know that feel famalam.

>>9038265
Are you... an alien?

>>9038309
No, just fat and out of shape

>>9038265
Just like the relationship of your parents

>>9038258
Its mainly an issue for respiration, silicon based life would have to develop a way to get rid of it in large volumes constantly

>>9038318
Just like any relationship you've ever had.

>>9038249
That depends on what life is, but for the most popular definition, that possibility is approximately zero.

>>9038323
essentially what you are saying is silicon based life would poop

A LOT

>>9038249
Possibillites are limited and unlikely. The nature of the covalent bonds possible with silicon limit what you can do with it.

>>9038323
So just shitting out like me the other night when that double chalupa settled in my colon.

>>9038249
carbon and silicon share the same column on the periodic table, meaning they are chemically simialr.

>>9038323
>large volumes
possibly
>constantly
possibly

You say large volumes, but that doesn't mean it can't be stored in a sac and shat out as one big turd.

>>9038683
>they are chemically simialr.
Not similar enough.

Silicon is great for making rocks. Carbon is great for making complex organic molecules.

To each its own.

large molecules can be made from carbon because 4 bonds 4 valence electrons, silicon is the same,

Complex organic molecules basically form themselves. There will be hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids and amides basically everywhere there is enough C,H,N,O, whether that is a comet, a nebula or the interstellar medium. Add in the right conditions (water and an energy source, like lightning) and you get a variety of amino-acids, which has already been done experimentally.

>>9038934
Silicon has much poorer p-p superposition and thus no [math]\pi[/math] bonding, so there's no silicon equivalent of all insaturated carbon compounds.

>>9038249
Steven universe thread?

>>9038974
>which has already been done experimentally.
Do go on

>>9039259
Google the Miller-Urey experiment.

>>9038974
What if a planet conditions that silicon like different atmopsheric pressure or atmosphere composition?

>>9038974
chem undergrad here

whats p-p superpostion? where can i read about this? p chem or some shit?

>>9038974
yes but beyond computer models nobody has demonstrated a molecule which can reproduce itself

a molecule which attracts other molecules/atoms in just the right way, attaches them to itself, and then has the net energy to cut off what it has attracted, such that what it has attracted (and cut off) can perform the same operation has not been demonstrated

it strains the imagination as to how this could be done. but i cannot deny that at some point it must have.

whatever reproduces itself must attract, sort and form what it has attracted, and separate what it has attracted and formed from itself.

So a planet like Mercury/Venus would be good for silicon based life?

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>>9038249
Why not Germanium based life or Tin based?

>>9038265
Cialis may be right for you

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>>9038249
>Explain the possibility of silicon based life to me

>>9039326
Those elements can't form compounds as easily as carbon or silicon.

>>9038309
Have you seen chef?

>>9039326
Or Boron?

>>9039312
Two p orbital wave functions' superposition/overlapping. P chem would probably be where you learn it in depth. It should be explained in Gen chem books though.

>>9039469
I'm not going to give you $3.50

>>9039469
?

>>9038256
if the organism lived in water then the silicon dioxide produced by cellular respiration could just filtered out by it's environment

>>9039898
ima need about tree fiddy

Forgot to mention carbon is also much more common than silicon.
>>9039312
You should have done this in general or inorganic 1.

>>9038256
life without oxygen would actually be much more likely than life without carbon

Has there been an equivalent to organic chemistry for silicon ?

>>9039330
lost

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>>9038249

This confusion arises from the fact that no one learns in biology about colloids anymore. They teach life as chemical legos, but its more about the emmergent properties of the solution. Life is a colloid like milk or jello. It's a liquid that assumes a different phase due to the particles irreversibly dissolved in it (bad definition but im bio not chem sry). Point is that silicon life is only likely if silicon can form colloids with some solvent that is common in the universe like water and has useful organizational properties like polarity and viscosity that water has. This is probably unlikely.

tl;dr silicon can't life because you can't make rock jello

It's a meme.

It is a cool idea for a game/story though.

Does anyone remember that kid game where you had microscopic silicon based monsters that were supposedly reanimated when electricity flowed through a computer chip?

Synthetic life from silicon?

>>9038931
that would be rather energy intensive
probably enough for them to be outbred and wiped out by carbon based life

>>9040914
>tl;dr silicon can't life because you can't make rock jello

Neatly and amusingly expressed. This is your answer, OP.

>>9040919
So outta curiosity, has anybody tried a Miller-Urey variation to see if you can get amino-acid analogues using silicon?

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Not clear if it said "No Kill I" or that it means to win Wimbledon...

>>9040643

Of course, oxygen's only job is to oxidize things when necessary. Carbon's job is to form complex molecular structures, and of all the elements it's the best at it. Luckily it's also really common so silicon based life isn't even a necessary development for life to be able to exist on most worlds, a much bigger hurdle is environmental conditions.

>>9041072

Complex silicon compounds tend to easily break down and are also quite reactive, meaning they are very unlikely to ever build up to the required concentrations in an environment where life could arise.