Question

All life on earth is carbon-based. Some people have suggested using silicon in carbon’s place for life on other worlds. Do a little research on the web to find answers to the following questions.

8.         What are the atomic masses of carbon and silicon, respectively?

9.         Why is silicon a possible “replacement” for carbon?

10.       What are the difficulties with silicon playing carbon’s part? [Hint: look at the stability of silicon]

11.       Are there any other atoms that might be able to take the place of carbon? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

8. Atomic mass of Carbon = 12.00 amu

Atomic mass of silicon = 28.1 amu

9. Because like carbon, silicon also have four valence electrons and therefore can bind to four other atoms.

10. Stability of silicon is exceptionally high compared to Carbon. Thus it won't be possible to do biodegradation of silicon compounds unlike carbon compounds.

11. The whole column in periodic table under carbon have carbon like chemical properties. But dur to their high size and other properties like stability they are not suitable for life.