Heretic

Actually, to get silicon based life requires that silicon consistently behaves like a nonmetal rather than a metal. Metaloids are those elements [seven of them, including two in the same periodic table colume as carbon, ergo exhibit similar chemical properties] that switch from acting as metals or nonmetals depending on conditions. The key is to get silicon- or germanium to behave as a nonmetal all the time.

However, even with biocarbon organisms [as opopsed to biosilicon, biogermanium, bionitrogen or biophosphorus] there's still an astounding range of variation possible based on differences in chemistry. Now because of other single celled organisms found two miles deep into the Earth's crust- living within solid rock no less, all of those are biocarbon, use the same aminoacids for their genetic code and have roughly the same metabolic pathways as many extremophiles found on the surface [Yellowstone hotsrpings] or in thermal vents at the ocean bottom. The key is what gasses organisms in this aquatic crustal void are exchanging and- in lieu of plantae; animalia; or fungae, what alternative biological classifications could manifest?

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

jowey

It would be interesting to find out more about this environment, because life survived Earth when it was less than hospitable.

__________________

Heretic

The Science Channel documentary about the Earth taking a collision so severe that even after the initial impact effects the residual heat energy was enough to completely vaporise not only all water down to the ocean floor, but even vamporize the salts. But there was still a green zone deep in the chrust between the planet core heat and the heat permeanting down, where extremophiles could live safely until the planet cooled down again.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

Malkavian

__________________
Woof!

Ouroboros

Dude, this isn't the "Post Your Pics" thread.

DannyBoy

That is awesome... not sure what else to say. I need to read it all.

jowey

Yeah, didnt want to look up the link.....

That was amazing, was that the same show where they awakened some microbes that they found in stone ?

__________________

Heretic

That be the one. Some were millions of years old and metabolically inert until they revived them.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

Ouroboros

It makes one wonder what effect the melting of the polar caps will have. I'm sure there are a lot of little critters, long ago buried from radically different ecosystems, that are awakening from cryostasis. Will our current ecosystem be able to deal with this? Or, are we just food?

Heretic

The ice of the north pole isn't likely to contain microbes more than a few thousand or, possibly hundreds of thousands of years old. Bare in mind that even in normal global average temperatures some of the floating ice sheet melts, and even that which persists through the summer will melt a little on the underside while weather adds new layers on top.

Now the Antarctic is another matter entirely. There are glaciers and immobile ice sheets that are a couple miles thick and due to low precipitation are hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. It'd be less dramatic than John Carpenter's The Thing, but still something to consider.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium