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	Alternative biochemistry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Proponents of such theories sometimes use the expression "carbon chauvinism" to disparage the assumption that organic compounds based on carbon are necessarily the basis for all life.
		The cosmic abundance of carbon to silicon is roughly 10 to 1.
		Both diamondoid and carbon nanotubes are also commonly proposed materials for use in nanomachines, forms of carbon not used by life as it is currently known, and furthermore it is often proposed that nanotechnological devices will operate without the water environment that life as it is currently known requires.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Alternative_biochemistry (3562 words)

	Carbon-based life - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Carbon forms the backbone of biology for all life on Earth.
		Since no life has been observed that is not carbon-based, it is sometimes assumed in astrobiology that life elsewhere in the universe will also be carbon-based.
		This assumption is referred to by critics as carbon chauvinism, as it may be possible for life to form that is not based on carbon.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Carbon-based (136 words)

	carbon-based life
		Carbon is the key elemental building block for all terrestrial life.
		The reason for this is carbon's ability to form a staggering range of complex, stable molecules with itself and other elements, especially hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
		It may be that we find it hard to see viable alternatives to carbon biochemistry because we have no experience of such alternatives.
	www.daviddarling.info /encyclopedia/C/carbon-based_life.html (194 words)

	Alternative biochemistry - Facts, Information, and Encyclopedia Reference article
		However, silicon dioxide (the analogue of carbon dioxide) is a non-soluble solid at the temperature range where liquid water is possible making it difficult for silicon to be introduced into water-based biochemical systems even if the necessary range of biochemical molecules could be constructed out of it.
		Finally, of the varieties of molecules identified in interstellar space as of 1998, 84 are based on carbon and 8 are based on silicon.
		Terrestial life usually exists within the melting point and boiling point of water at normal pressure, between 0°C (273 K) and 100°C (373 K); at normal pressure ammonia's melting and boiling points are between −78°C (195 K) and −33°C (240 K).
	www.startsurfing.com /encyclopedia/c/a/r/Carbon_chauvinism.html (2303 words)

	carbon
		Carbon is found free in nature in three main allotropic forms: amorphous, graphite, and diamond.
		Carbon is manufactured inside the cores of evolved stars by a process that involves either a remarkable coincidence or a piece of cosmic tuning.
		He reasoned that the only way enough carbon could be made was if there existed a very specific match of nuclear energy levels, or resonance, between helium, beryllium, and carbon under precisely the conditions thought to prevail in the cores of stars at this stage in their evolution.
	www.daviddarling.info /encyclopedia/C/carbon.html (514 words)

	Re: Is carbon-based life the only possibility?
		Carbon doesn't care what temperature it is. Molecules, such as methane, are methane from close to absolute zero until they decompose at some relatively high temperature.
		The likelihood of life being based on silicon (outside of the concept of artificial life based on the machine model) are slim.
		Silanes - the equivalent of the carbon based alkanes - are spontaneously combustable in the presence of oxygen (or react rapidly with nitrogen or the halides).
	www.madsci.org /posts/archives/2003-12/1071392993.Bc.r.html (825 words)

	The Environmental Literacy Council - Carbon Cycle
		Carbon is a fundamental building block of life; life on Earth is comprised of carbon-based life forms.
		Trees store large amounts of carbon; when they die and decompose, much of this stored carbon is released as CO However, when humans clear large expanses of forest, primarily through the use of fire, the levels of atmospheric carbon are increased in two ways.
		Since carbon dioxide is a primary greenhouse gas, many scientists argue that the increase in atmospheric CO from human activities has resulted in an enhanced greenhouse effect and could result in corresponding changes in our global climate, including higher global temperatures.
	www.enviroliteracy.org /article.php/478.html (967 words)

	SPACE.com -- The Bricks of Life: Exploring the Idea of Alien Chemistry
		In other words, each carbon atom is able (and eager) to bond with up to four other electron-sharing atoms (most atoms prefer to have a filled outer shell of eight electrons).
		As a common example, a single carbon atom will eagerly take on four hydrogen atoms to make methane (CH And because carbons outer shell is both half filled and half empty, it can handily hook up with other carbon atoms, creating the sort of elaborate molecular chains and rings that fuel companies love to pump.
		Ergo, silicon might also seem to be an obvious basis for life, a point that was first made at the end of the nineteenth century by the German astrophysicist, Julius Scheiner.
	www.space.com /searchforlife/seti_carbon_040415.html (804 words)

	Lounge (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		These were based on a social evolutionist notion, an outtake of Darwin's ideas, that the fittest society is one that can overpower another, thus doing humanity a favor by eliminating a weak social gene from the collective.
		Consequently, the emerging modern awareness of life force in the West is attended by borrowed terms, such as chi and prana, or imprecise ones, such as ‘vibes’ or ‘energy’.
		It recognizes that all life forms have their domains, the fish have the flooded forests and rivers, the bats and owls the night sky, the monkeys and birds the trees.
	www.tribesofcreation.com /pages/lounge.html (10098 words)

	WMAP Cosmology 101: Life in Our Universe
		Carbon and oxygen were not created in the Big Bang, but rather much later in stars.
		All of the carbon and oxygen in all living things are made in the nuclear fusion reactors that we call stars.
		Life requires energy, water, and carbon; an environmental disaster that removes water, dooms life.
	map.gsfc.nasa.gov /m_uni/uni_101life.html (1241 words)

	Carbon
		Carbon is the sixth most common element in the universe.
		In addition, carbon is a very special element because it plays a dominant role in the chemistry of life.
		This is the carbon molecule that has been making headlines in Nanotechnology and now the drug industry also has interests in it.
	www.nyu.edu /pages/mathmol/modules/carbon/carbon1.html (188 words)

	Carbon
		Another form of elemental carbon, the fullerene, was not observed until 1985, although the possibility of its existence had been suggested as long ago as 1966.
		The different kinds of carbon have very similar (but not quite identical) chemical and mechanical properties; the main practical significance of the existence of different isotopes stems from the fact that carbon-14 is radioactive, with a half-life of a few thousand years.
		The carbon cycle is crucial to the way the Earth's ecosystem works: Plants absorb the carbon dioxide that makes up around 0.03% of our atmosphere and use the energy of sunlight to build sugar molecules from water and CO, a process known as photosynthesis.
	fergusmurray.members.beeb.net /carbon.htm (1376 words)

	Cosmic Evolution - Epoch 8 - Future Evolution
		Life thus far has been couched with the qualifier “as we know it.” That’s carbon-based life, operating in a water-based medium, with higher forms metabolizing oxygen.
		For this reason, a carbon chemical bond is among the strongest of all.
		This is especially true for diamond, which is made of carbon atoms bonded to one another, as sketched in Figure 8.23.
	www.tufts.edu /as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/text/text_future_5.html (1676 words)

	SPACE.com -- Thank the Stars for Carbon-Based Life
		These include, among others, the gravitational constant, which allows for the formation of galaxies and stars; the fine-tuned expansion rate of the universe; and the nuclear reaction rate in stars, which is responsible for creating the rich abundance of elements found throughout the universe.
		Astronomers know that the abundance of carbon in today's universe was produced largely in the interiors of red giant stars, and without just the right amount of carbon, carbon-based life that's us would be impossible.
		The process that creates carbon is called the "triple-alpha process." This is a nuclear reaction in which three helium atoms fuse to form carbon (helium nuclei are known as alpha particles).
	www.space.com /scienceastronomy/astronomy/redstar_carbon.html (435 words)

	Non-carbon based life-forms?
		Even if the only life that ever emerges from primordial conditions is carbonbase, it can still be the case that the main type of life populating the galaxy is noncarbon.
		Carbon is more common in the universe, so one would expect carbon based life to be more common, but as noted above, life forms in a niche, and a silicon rich niche would hardly be surprising.
		Life with a methane based chemistry seems more likely than a Flourine cased chemistry, simply because we know of many places where there is abundant atmospheric methane.
	www.physicsforums.com /showthread.php?t=67954 (2230 words)

	Untitled Document (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		Not only this, but carbons that lack all four bonds needed to maintain its most stable isomer-that is that they only have three bonds, or two-have the ability to rearrange their electrons between adjacent carbons to form the most stable conformation.
		The concept of silicon-based life forms was first introduced by Julius Schiener in 1891, and was further developed by James Emerson Reynolds in 1893, who stated that silicon-based life forms may exist in areas where the temperature is very high since silicon has a high heat stability.
		Carbon molecules also have a trait called chirality, or "handedness." This trait accounts for the recognition of certain reactions by enzymes in the particular carbon-based life forms.
	www-scf.usc.edu /~mbederni/SCIFI/silicon.html (625 words)

	Life on Earth and Elsewhere
		A guide to the potential development of carbon-based life on other planets in the Solar System or around other stars is the past history and continuously changing nature of life and environmental conditions on Earth.
		One view of the Phylogeny of Life on Earth (at the University of California at Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology) highlights the role of archeabacteria among prokaryotes -- as a separate Archaea "domain" apart from Eubacteria -- in the development of cellular life with nuclei (eukaryotes).
		As a result, life on Earth has flourished for over four billion years by recycling its own wastes and exploiting new habitats with physiological adaptations, through occasional environmental disasters such as catastrophic meteoric impacts.
	www.solstation.com /life.htm (2772 words)

	Water: The Hub of Life
		It was formed mostly from the outgassing of such volatile compounds as water vapor, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrochloric acid and sulfur produced by the constant volcanic eruptions that besieged the Earth.
		Single-celled microbial life lacking a nucleus (prokaryotes) were probably the first forms of life resembling those of modern times.
		What is known is that life, the atmosphere and the climate are closely intertwined with fluid water as the key aspect.
	www.ozh2o.com /h2origin4.html (1816 words)

	Geography4Kids.com: BGC Cycles: Carbon Cycle
		Carbon (C) is the basis of life on Earth.
		Scientists consider 99.9% of all organisms on the planet to be carbon based life.
		Whether the carbon is in the form of a sugar or carbon dioxide gas, we all need it.
	www.geography4kids.com /files/cycles_carbon.html (351 words)

	Alien Life Forms May Be Inside Earth (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		LIFE FORMS so alien that scientists may simply not have recognised evidence of their existence could inhabit the Earth, according to a leading scientist.
		Every known living organism, from bacteria to mankind, is based on the chemistry of carbon, which forms the complex molecules such as DNA that are central to our existence.
		Gold's life forms, if they exist, would most likely be micro-organisms capable of withstanding enormous pressures and temperatures, living in tiny pores inside rock deep within the Earth's crust.
	www.anomalous-images.com /news/news286.html (732 words)

	Is non carbon based life feasable? - 4Forums.com
		It seems to me that Carbon has specific properties that lend itself to life, the ability to conduct electricity in certain forms being one of them.
		Carbon is special, because not only can it bond with itself in many many ways, but it can make stable bonds with a lot of different atoms.
		Life is exceedingly complex, so pretty much only carbon can provide the number of molecules with varying functional groups necessary for such a complex system.
	www.4forums.com /political/showthread.php?t=5327 (544 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		Carbon atoms readily form a strong bond between themselves and a range of other atoms, most importantly hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, but it is the strength of the carbon-carbon bond that is most significant.
		Silicon is the element most like carbon (it is directly beneath carbon on the periodic table), a fact picked up by more than one science fiction writer.
		Carbon based life can be divided between oxidizers (animals burn food to produce carbon dioxide) and reducers (plants use carbon dioxide in photosynthesis).
	members.lycos.co.uk /thepixie/sfrpg/xenochem.htm (569 words)

	[No title]
		Life here on earth is based on carbon compounds, which tend to have spectra that fall in the infrared region.
		The term "carbon-based life" simply acknowledges that we're making an assumption that life is based solely on carbon, which could easily be erroneous.
		silicon based life is technically possible as silicon also has the ability to make four bonds and many common propertiers witgh carbon, but carbon is a better base.
	arstechnica.com /journals/science.ars/2005/12/21/2161 (838 words)

	World Builders Lesson 2 Geology Temperatures on Venus Earth & Mars E Viau Cal State University LA
		This is pleasant for carbon-based life forms, though some with adaptations for cold might feel uncomfortably warm.
		Carbon-based life forms could survive at the warmer temperatures (given oxygen and other necessities) but the water in our cells freezes at 0 C, and maintaining our body heat would be challenging in even the warmest areas.
		It is amazing to think that life has been here for billions of years -- and during all that time, there has been liquid water on earth every day.
	curriculum.calstatela.edu /courses/builders/lessons/less/les3/planettemps.html (563 words)

	Chemical Basis of Life (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		Lead and Germanium are in the same column as carbon and silicon and may therefore have similar properties.
		This combined with the fact that a large amount of silicon is found in the parts of the universe we have sampled leads some to consider the possibility that life may have evolved based on silicon in other locations.
		The likelihood of a planet with sufficient concentrations of germanium for a life form is small.
	www.newton.dep.anl.gov /askasci/gen99/gen99709.htm (448 words)

	Non-Carbon Based Life Forms
		However, carbon's tendency to form the long chains and rings that form the basis for organic compounds that at some level of complexity begin to self-replicate is unique.
		Also, because older stars naturally produce carbon, along with nitrogen and oxygen (its neighbors on the periodic table), it is relatively abundant in the universe.
		It is the chemistry of carbon that allows us to consider the possibility of life "as we know it" in other parts of the Galaxy and the Universe beyond.
	imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov /docs/ask_astro/answers/980221b.html (428 words)

	Welcome to Zooland!
		In practice, biology is the scientific study of life on Earth based on carbon-chain chemistry.
		Artificial Life (``AL'' or ``Alife'') is the name given to a new discipline that studies "natural" life by attempting to recreate biological phenomena from scratch within computers and other "artificial" media.
		By now, applications of artificial life (Alife) are becoming commonplace: Social scientists use "evolutionary" algorithms to explore social interactions, for example, while biologists harness the equations for studying protein folding and lining up DNA sequences.
	alife.ccp14.ac.uk /zooland/zooland (1530 words)

	Nanotechnology and the arrival of the Diamond Age
		The average life expectancy in medieval times was a mere 30 years, there were no anesthetics, many people had to do backbreaking physical work and made considerable more workinghours than presently common.
		This is the dimension of a typical atom (carbon).
		An indisputable prove for the possibillity of total autonomous selfreproduction at the molecular scale is the fact that the whole biology is based on it.
	www.dse.nl /~hkl/e_nano1.htm (3199 words)

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