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For the First Time, Living Cells Have Formed Carbon-Silicon Bonds (sciencealert.com)
From a ScienceDaily alert: Scientists have managed to coax living cells into making carbon-silicon bonds, demonstrating for the first time that nature can incorporate silicon -- one of the most abundant elements on Earth -- into the building blocks of life. While chemists have achieved carbon-silicon bonds before -- they're found in everything from paints and semiconductors to computer and TV screens -- they've so far never been found in nature, and these new cells could help us understand more about the possibility of silicon-based life elsewhere in the Universe. After oxygen, silicon is the second most abundant element in Earth's crust, and yet it has nothing to do with biological life. Why silicon has never be incorporated into any kind of biochemistry on Earth has been a long-standing puzzle for scientists, because, in theory, it would have been just as easy for silicon-based lifeforms to have evolved on our planet as the carbon-based ones we know and love. Not only are carbon and silicon both extremely abundant in Earth's crust - they're also very similar in their chemical make-up.
Don't fuck around with silicon based life. It's bad stuff.
... welcome our new silicon-based overlords.
I'd guess that the main reason life is based on carbon rather than silicon is CO2 vs SiO2. It's a lot easier to breath in (plants) or out (animals) a gas (CO2) than a solid (SiO2). CO2 is also highly soluble in water, unlike (AFAIK) SiO2.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
"in theory, it would have been just as easy for silicon-based lifeforms to have evolved on our planet as the carbon-based ones we know and love"
Anyone that took first year science is laughing at you right now. There is no competition between which one would be used in organic cells. That one period is a huge difference.
While silicon has four free valences like carbon, its reaction times are several magnitudes lower. Millions of years will pass until two silicon based lifeforms decide to mate, and till they bear children, the central star of their home planetary system burns out.
The important application for this is CYBORGS!!
"Not only are carbon and silicon both extremely abundant in Earth's crust - they're also very similar in their chemical make-up." -- What? They're completely different elements... their chemical composition is *100%* different.
Plenty of organisms use silicon, diatoms first come to mind, but they use it mostly for protective shells. Silicon is good to make hard stuff, carbon is good for everything else. There's really no puzzle here.
If I learnt anything from Master of Orion as a kid, it's that Silicoids are bastards. They have no compassion, and you might as well conquer them and then use them to colonise inhospitable planets.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Silicon has long been known known to be an essential element for animals, and it is widely deposited by plants and animals (e.g., silica). So, there must be plenty of silicon biochemistry.
Why doesn't biology utilize it more? Probably because for most needs, other compounds work better and producing silicon compounds takes a lot of energy and time.
I welcome our silicone based overlords created out of a lab experiment washed down the sink and raised in the sewer. We deserve such masters!
I wonder if this technology would be useful in some form to enable us to engineer implantable technology.
I welcome our new Horta overlords.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
It's a ridiculous sentence, but it was a teaser to go into a discussion on valence electrons... the editors left the statement in like it was some kind of conclusion, rather than the beginning of the article.
Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor - not a bricklayer!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Well... they do both have 4 valence electrons in their outermost electron shell...
But yeah, the similarity stops there.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
(With trowel in hand and up to his elbows in mortar)
Jim, I'm beginning to think I can treat anything!
Not only are carbon and silicon both extremely abundant in Earth's crust - they're also very similar in their chemical make-up.
But for a cosmic flip of the coin, we could all be silicon-based beings, and our women could have carbon implants.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
...of the Voorta.
Snakegrass, horsetail (equisetum) has used silica for over a hundred million years. But I'm sure these guys knew that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Si02 isn't soluble in water.
Silicon doesn't easily form chains. When we do coax it to form long chains it isn't stable.
If we look into space we actually find clouds of alcohol a very water soluble carbon based molecule. We generally don't see many Silicon base water soluble molecules occurring naturally.
The polarity of the bond in SiH4 is the opposite of CH4. The bond is also much weaker, weaker than even H-H bond thus very primitive organic processes would have a more difficult time building more complicated structures with Silicon.
they are similar in chemical makeup doesn't mean squat. A claw hammer is similar to a ball peen hammer but try pulling a nail with the latter.
It is nice to see a Trump free day on slashdot, more like the good old days.
Master of Orion 1 did not allow ruling other species. In Master of Orion 2, terraforming tech is not very difficult to get. I liked the Sakkra and subterranean and farming bonuses better. I never did play much of Master of Orion 3, or the new game. Frankly, I liked spying and framing silicoids.
Well... they do both have 4 valence electrons in their outermost electron shell...
But yeah, the similarity stops there.
When it comes to chemical reactions, that one similarity is by far the most important.
Until someone ruined it for us.
My ex-wife already incorporated loads of silicone!
Why silicon has never be incorporated into any kind of biochemistry on Earth has been a long-standing puzzle for scientists, because, in theory, it would have been just as easy for silicon-based lifeforms
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Just to point out a simple thing.
When I was a kid, they said there's no life without photosynthesis either to make a cells food, or to be another creatures food.
They said nothing could live in battery acid.
They said nothing could live in the the vacuum of space.
They said nothing could live in the high radiation of a nuclear reactor or space.
They said nothing could live in the sub zero conditions in ice itself.
They said nothing could live in the boiling waters of a geyser. (They hadn't found the oceanic hydrothermal vents yet.)
They said blood couldn't be based on copper, it had to be iron.
You know what? Since then every one of those things have been proven wrong. On Earth we have found life that violates those rules. Everything from Chemosynthesis to Extremophiles and Tardigrades, among some many weird and wonderful examples. Not all of these are newly discovered creatures or microscopic. Take the Horseshoe Crab and it's copper based blood as an example.
You'd be amazed at what actually exists in nature. Even if you think you've created something unique in the way of life forms, odds are mother nature beat you to it, and you just haven't realized it yet.
"After oxygen, silicon is the second most abundant element in Earth's crust, and yet it has nothing to do with biological life. "
Silicon has a LOT to do with biological life. Plants slurp the stuff up non-stop.
https://www.google.com.au/sear...
Insert boob joke here
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.