Could there be iron based life?

1 Answer. It’s certainly possible but it’s also unlikely because of a chemical property called Valency. Put simply, carbon makes a great basis for organic compounds because it’s naturally tetravalent, or in other words can combine with 4 other elements or atoms to form new molecules.

Why are we carbon based life forms and not made from silicon?

Reasons why Silicon is not used as the base of life are: – Reactions of Silicon are much slower than reactions of Carbon. The life on the earth is composed mainly of carbon, because carbon has four valences and it is possible for various bonds to be made.

Can life be silicon-based?

So, the answer, at least for now, is no – although silicon can sometimes be used biologically as a sort of structural support (and there are some examples claiming silicon as an essential trace element) for carbon-based life – silicon-based life itself does not exist, as far as we know, because of the chemical and …

Are there silicon based life forms?

Is silicon carbon based?

Silicon is close to carbon in the periodic table, it has a valency of 4 (the same as carbon) and so each atom could in principle form bonds with up to 4 other atoms and could also therefore apparently be a building block a bit like carbon – and so may in principle be able to form similar structures, one might think.

Why is carbon-based life possible but not silicon-based?

This property is seen even in silicon, but silicon has three energy levels, unlike carbon (which has two). Therefore it tends to make larger and weaker bonds than carbon. But the most important factor for carbon-based life is carbon’s ability to make double bonds, with other elements and also with similar carbon atoms.

Could silicon be the basis for alien life forms?

Silicon can grow into a number of lifelike structures, but its chemistry makes it unlikely that it could be the basis for alien life-forms. Indeed, carbon and silicon share many characteristics. Each has a so-called valence of four–meaning that individual atoms make four bonds with other elements in forming chemical compounds.

Can a silicon-based life form release energy?

However, the overall summary of all this is that energy-release from a hypothetical silicon-based life form is a massively problematical theoretical issue, which one would think would preclude the life form itself existing.

Is silicon-based life more than science fiction?

Silicon-Based Life May Be More Than Just Science Fiction. Scientists are showing that nature can evolve to incorporate silicon into carbon-based molecules — the building blocks of life on Earth. Artist rendering of organosilicon-based life. Recent research shows, for the first time, that bacteria can create organosilicon compounds.