Silicon based life

[QuantumCrab]

I’m really not sure. You see, carbon and silicon are both very stable yet flexible chemicals, allowing for many different compounds and forms. I don’t know of any others that are the same…

[Omicron (He who abuses the search function)]

According to this wikipedia page:

• Various metals, together with oxygen, can form very complex and thermally stable structures rivaling those of organic compounds; the heteropoly acids are one such family. Some metal oxides are also similar to carbon in their ability to form both nanotube structures and diamond-like crystals (such as cubic zirconia). Titanium, aluminium, magnesium, and iron are all more abundant in the Earth’s crust than carbon. Metal-oxide-based life could therefore be a possibility under certain conditions, including those (such as high temperatures) at which carbon-based life would be unlikely. The Cronin group at Glasgow University reported self-assembly of tungsten polyoxometalates into cell-like spheres.[19] By modifying their metal oxide content, the spheres can acquire holes that act as porous membrane, selectively allowing chemicals in and out of the sphere according to size.[19]
• Sulfur is also able to form long-chain molecules, but suffers from the same high-reactivity problems as phosphorus and silanes. The biological use of sulfur as an alternative to carbon is purely hypothetical, especially because sulfur usually forms only linear chains rather than branched ones. (The biological use of sulfur as an electron acceptor is widespread and can be traced back 3.5 billion years on Earth, thus predating the use of molecular oxygen.[20] Sulfur-reducing bacteria can utilize elemental sulfur instead of oxygen, reducing sulfur to hydrogen sulfide.)

tl;dr: Yes, for example Titanium, aluminium, magnesium, iron and sulfur

[QuantumCrab]

As soon as you begin to break down what life is, its really just a whole lot of dead chemistry that can self-replicate. So there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to this…

[reeper66 (🔥😈🔥The Bored One🎮🕹💻)]

metal people? cool!

@Omicron

• Various metals, together with oxygen, can form very complex and thermally stable structures rivaling those of organic compounds; the heteropoly acids are one such family. Some metal oxides are also similar to carbon in their ability to form both nanotube structures and diamond-like crystals (such as cubic zirconia). Titanium, aluminium, magnesium, and iron are all more abundant in the Earth’s crust than carbon. Metal-oxide-based life could therefore be a possibility under certain conditions, including those (such as high temperatures) at which carbon-based life would be unlikely. The Cronin group at Glasgow University reported self-assembly of tungsten polyoxometalates into cell-like spheres.[19] By modifying their metal oxide content, the spheres can acquire holes that act as porous membrane, selectively allowing chemicals in and out of the sphere according to size.[19]
• Sulfur is also able to form long-chain molecules, but suffers from the same high-reactivity problems as phosphorus and silanes. The biological use of sulfur as an alternative to carbon is purely hypothetical, especially because sulfur usually forms only linear chains rather than branched ones. (The biological use of sulfur as an electron acceptor is widespread and can be traced back 3.5 billion years on Earth, thus predating the use of molecular oxygen.[20] Sulfur-reducing bacteria can utilize elemental sulfur instead of oxygen, reducing sulfur to hydrogen sulfide.)

[Steve]

Narrator: The Silicon Crab or Rock Lobster, as the locals are calling it, is an astonishing creature to watch as is crawls around leaving a trail of mucus covered quartz in it’s wake.

[Rednascar11 (Merlok keeper of the liberty top-hat)]

Or instead of having quartz diarrhea everytime you breath they have a second bladder type organ that holds the quartz and then it poops it out as quartz poop or diarrhea

[Rednascar11 (Merlok keeper of the liberty top-hat)]

What
I meant just pooping out the quartz out of a second anus

[QuantumCrab]

The parrot fish poops out sand every so often:

So perhaps aquatic silicon-based lifeforms would have an easier time

[KikyGames (The Collector Of Useless Information)]

That is how those white sand beaches are made.So ur playing in fish poop

[Rednascar11 (Merlok keeper of the liberty top-hat)]

wait i have an idea instead of breathing oxygen the silicone lifeforms breath nitrogen then they dont breath out quartz i think

[BowlDawg]

What if it was managed to be excreted through the skin, as in it would become like a secondary protective layer?

[Steve]

Ever thought of a flying silicon based life form? Is that possible? Producing quartz as waste seems like it would be really heavy plus silicon being heavier than carbon.

[reeper66 (🔥😈🔥The Bored One🎮🕹💻)]

@Steve

a flying silicon based life form? Is that possible?

it might work

@Rednascar11

instead of breathing oxygen the silicone lifeforms breath nitrogen the they don’t breath out quartz i think

[Steve]

@Rednascar11

instead of breathing oxygen the silicone lifeforms breath nitrogen then they dont breath out quartz i think

They wouldn’t, but they would then be breathing out metal fragments. Silicon Nitride is very resistant to heat so maybe instead of breathing it out, it could just have it cover the outside and slowly form a metal shell.

[Rednascar11 (Merlok keeper of the liberty top-hat)]

oh and they could use it as body armor sorta

[reeper66 (🔥😈🔥The Bored One🎮🕹💻)]

i like it!

[Rednascar11 (Merlok keeper of the liberty top-hat)]

Your welcome

[QuantumCrab]

Why not both?

[KikyGames (The Collector Of Useless Information)]

If everyone has the metalshell predators whoud evolve to crack it so it whoud be the same

[QuantumCrab]

with that logic one could ask why turtles are still a thing