How would you go about making an alien race with a different bio-chemistry (Such as using Silicon instead of Carbon) or environment (For example, high gravity).
>>45958453
Silicon-based life is one of those things that sounds plausible on the face of it (silicon has four valence electrons, just like carbon), but in practice probably wouldn't work. Silicon's a lot less reactive than carbon is, it doesn't form nearly as wide a range of compounds as carbon does. Now, what sort of weird biochemistry you could get is carbon bonding with things that it doesn't in terrestrial life. Arsenic, for example, has been proposed as a possible replacement for sulfur, and there's actually some speculation that early terrestrial life may have used arsenic-based compounds. There's also some interesting stuff with alternate solvents than water, ammonia is considered fairly plausible by exobiologists. And of course there's the (comparatively) simple way of making exotic biochemistry by just shuffling around what sort of CHON-based compounds do what. It would be simple enough to have a biosphere where genetic information was coded in peptide chains instead of DNA, for example, and there are a wide range of things you could make cell walls out of other than phospholipids.
Well silicon dioxide is soild below 2000K so just replacing carbon with silicon would result in you breathing sand.
>>45958606
That's only if you directly swap the atoms in an already carbon-based life form (which would have a lot of other problems, too). Presumably a creature that evolved in a silicon-based biosphere would have separate organs for taking in oxygen and expelling silicon dioxide. Probably drop it off in some membrane that it would periodically empty. So it wouldn't be breathing sand, just constantly shitting it.
This reminds me of the TNG episode "Schisms"
>>45958606
Unless it uses aerobic respiration.
Possibly similar to Sulfate-reducing bacteria.
I'm not really convinced by the silicon based life forms idea to be honest, carbon is a very specific element, you can't just replace it in an extremely complex system with something that has some similarities with it
It's like replacing a pilot with a bus driver, not that much of a difference but it would still crash the plane
>>45958628
There's been some serious research into this. A theoretical silicon based biolagy has been figured out. Though it requires extrmely cold and oxygen free environments. I think it also had amonia or methane as a solvent.
>>45958683
The idea isn't just replacing carbon with silicon in the same molecules. You replace basically everything.
You don't just replace the busdriver, you replace the bus too, with something else that achieves the same function.
>>45958789
yeah sure, then replace it with marshmallows, and just get some washed up scientists to spend years on constructing a non functional model, makes sense
>>45958698
so people still have no idea how to make a compound efficiently(see paclitaxel) but suddenly they can make a whole functional life form, sounds legit
>>45958828
Figuring out an alternative biochemistry doesn't mean you can actually make it.
We know heaps about carbon based life but we still haven't managed to create any from scratch. But we have an idea of the kinds of chemical reactions and structures you probably need and we can find or figure out analogues that do the same thing but are made of different atoms.
>>45958934
>still haven't managed to create any from scratch
oh but they know how to make silicon based life now huh, the fuck are you even on about
it's just pseudo science bollocks
>>45958971
No one said they know how to do silicon based life.
They've just got theoretical models that work on paper.
>>45958987
I have a theoretical model as well, people who believe this shit are retards, works on paper
>>45958996
Geeze dude whats your problem?
Why are you in a thread about hypotheticals if you think their dumb?
It's not even like we're just talking about just fictional shit.
>>45958996
>>45959015
If you just consider it some funny fantasy idea like dragons, time travel or parallel worlds then sure but when people start saying that SCIVENTISTS SAID ITS REEL then it's like, no fuck you, it's dumb shit
also
>their
they're, you monkey
>>45959038
I think you've got the wrong thread, /lgbt/'s two boards down.
>>45958971
Based on our knowledge of biochemistry, carbon and silicon
How would be a species made of strange matter, not made of atoms as we know them?
>>45959063
Magic.
>>45959059
>lel ur gay xD
are you actually autistic?
>Based on our knowledge of biochemistry
based on our knowledge, it's still bullshit
>>45959074
>being this mad
>when there's 149 other threads you could go to
wew
A species that will survive the degenerate era of the universe. When the last star have died. And will go on even in the face of the extinction of matter by proton decay or quantum tunneling.
>>45959085
there's plenty of places for retards like you as well
>>45959107
Same for you, like /lgbt/
>>45959129
what a random board to pick, are you angry at lesbians or something? I'd think the go to insult is /b/
All matter in the universe desires to be Iron.
>>45959140
Then go back.
>>45959147
maybe you should go back, because it seems like you know more about that board than any of us here
>>45959161
>derailing
>insults
Nah, sounds like you need to go back
>>45959168
you're the one derailing though, you started talking about lgbt randomly, it seems like you're the one obsessed with them, I don't even know what they have to do with anything, pretty sure it's just a board for trannies or something
>>45959063
Mass–energy equivalence would basically say that mass and energy are in essence the same thing. So atoms are just forms of energy, but what if mass and energy are both just forms of a starting material.
>>45959063
Nobody knows. It's like talking about DarkMatter. There could be an entire realm of ghostly creatures that cant interact with normal matter.
>>45958453
>high gravity
Dwarves, basically. But they'll have a hell of a time improving their tech enough to get off planet.
>>45959711
They just build a really big cannon on top of the biggest mountain and fire until either they run out of dwarves or the moon looks like Swiss cheese with their tunnels
wew
