Scientists have scientifically proved the existence of silicon life forms

Our planet is inhabited by a variety of carbon life forms. They are called so because they consist of organic compounds, which necessarily include carbon. For decades, scientists and especially science fiction writers have assumed that there may be other forms of life in the universe, such as silicon. After all, silicon is very close in many properties to carbon. And so, for the first time in the history of human science, scientists proved that living cells are capable of forming carbon-silicon bonds.

In nature, silicon in its pure form is not found. This is due to the fact that the element is very highly reactive, so it quickly creates connections with other elements. Pure silicon exists only in the laboratory. The same can be said about silicon-carbon bonds, known in science as "organosilicon". Such compounds are produced in the laboratory, and then used in many areas, including medicine, electronics and others. Silicon and carbon are really very similar: both elements can form bonds with four atoms at the same time, which makes them suitable for forming long chains of molecules, such as proteins and DNA.

A new study by the California Institute of Technology, led by the famous American scientist Francis Arnold, proved that living cells are also capable of creating organosilicon bonds. The researchers used a protein called cytochrome c , isolated from a bacterium found in the hot springs of Iceland, after which they made several changes to its DNA. Thus, scientists have managed to create an enzyme that selectively creates silicon-carbon bonds. And this was the first to be achieved in a natural way, without using any chemical catalysts or other aggressive substances.

What does this discovery mean to science? So it means that nature is able to adapt and include silicon in the basis of living cells. Thus, life on our planet could well arise on the basis of silicon, and not carbon at all. It turns out that science fiction writers were right and silicon life forms can exist. If not on Earth, then on some other planet with suitable conditions for this. The discovery of a team of American researchers opens the door to a completely new world for science. Now scientists can even remotely imagine what could be silicon organisms, go evolution on our planet in a completely different way.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/research-development/uchyonye-nauchno-dokazali-sushhestvovanie-kremnievyx-form-zhizni.html.