Lead
Life on Earth is a web woven by countless carbon atoms, whether it is humans or other organisms, it is inseparable from the support of carbon elements, it can be said that life on Earth is carbon-based life.
But although life on Earth is very happy in the world of carbon-based life, it is very likely that the more suitable life in the universe is not carbon-based life, but silicon-based life.
As a more extensive element than carbon, silicon is actually not much on the earth, but if you look at it from the perspective of the universe, then the content of silicon in the universe is much more than carbon.
Moreover, silicon has an extra layer of electrons than carbon, which can not only withstand high temperatures, but also not be afraid of low temperatures, which means that silicon-based life is more adapted to the environment in the universe.
However, compared to silica, which is very low in the atmosphere, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's crust is much higher, which makes silicon-based life face a very serious problem: if silicon-based life does not need oxygen, then how can they survive in the earth's crust without oxygen?
1. Silicon-based life and carbon-based life.
You know, life on Earth is able to thrive in the world of carbon-based life, which is inseparable from the presence of oxygen molecules, without which life on Earth would not be able to survive.
And even carbon-based life has many kinds of life that cannot embrace oxygen, just like human beings just can't survive in an environment without oxygen, because the human respiratory system needs oxygen to catalyze metabolism, and oxygen can also help humans convert the energy in food into the energy that the human body needs.
Moreover, oxygen can also carry out antioxidant effects in the human body and delay the aging process of the human body, but it is also with oxygen that some metabolic wastes will be produced in the metabolic process of life on the earth, which is carbon dioxide.
The human body itself cannot convert carbon dioxide into food, so it is necessary to rely on plants to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, so as to maintain the balance of the ecological environment on the earth and human beings can survive forever.
But silicon-based life is not as distressed as carbon-based life, and they don't need oxygen to catalyze metabolism, so they can also struggle to survive in an oxygen-free environment.
In the environment on the earth, it is the earth's crust that can adapt to the environment without oxygen, and the main component in the earth's crust is silicate, and silicon-based life can maintain its life activities by absorbing silicates in the earth's crust.
This is because the metabolism rate of silicon-based life will be much slower than that of carbon-based life, so the metabolism of carbon-based life is very fast and requires a lot of oxygen to catalyze, while silicon-based life does not need so much oxygen.
Even in the earth's crust, which contains almost no oxygen, silicon-based life can survive here because their metabolism is slow, so even if the oxygen content in the earth's crust is low, it is enough to sustain silicon-based life.
Moreover, silicon-based life can also survive in different extreme environments, making silicon-based life the most suitable life form in the universe.
Second, the living environment of silicon-based life.
So what kind of environment is silicon-based life suitable for?
The first is the earth's crust, although the earth's crust does not contain oxygen, but the earth's crust is rich in silicates, which are the food of silicon-based life, and they can sustain their life activities by absorbing these silicates.
However, although silicon-based life is suitable for living in the earth's crust, the earth's crust is still a luxury for silicon-based life, after all, the formation of silicates in the earth's crust takes a long time, and the silicates in the earth's crust are also easily eroded by lava in the earth's crust, which means that the silicates in the earth's crust are not indestructible.
And silicon-based life is unacceptable for oxygen, if the oxygen content is slightly more, then the silicates in the earth's crust are easily eroded by oxygen, so if you want the silicates in the earth's crust not to be destroyed by oxygen, then it means that the oxygen content in the earth's crust cannot be too high.
The oxygen content in the earth's crust is the key to maintaining the survival of carbon-based life on the earth, so the silicates in the earth's crust can exist for a long time, which is inseparable from the carbon dioxide in the earth's crust.
Carbon dioxide in the earth's crust can also react with silicon oxide in the earth's crust to produce silica and oxygen, which is why the oxygen content in the earth's crust is very low.
However, if the oxygen content is too low, then the silicate in the earth's crust will be eroded by the reaction between silica and oxygen, so the oxygen content in the earth's crust needs to be kept at a very low level to ensure that the silicate in the earth's crust is not attacked by oxygen.
Therefore, the oxygen content in the earth's crust is very low, which is why the silicates in the earth's crust can persist for a long time.
There is also a kind of planet suitable for silicon-based life, that is, rocky planets, rocky planets are usually relatively small planets, because large planets generally have atmospheres, and the atmosphere will have a very high amount of oxygen, which is intolerable for silicon-based life.
The oxygen content in rocky planets will be very low, so it is very easy for silicon-based life to survive on such planets.
Moreover, the crust of the rocky planet is also rich in silicates, which is an excellent living environment for silicon-based life, and the rocky planet is not as complex as the life system on the earth, so silicon-based life does not need to worry about the erosion of oxygen.
However, silicon-based life on rocky planets is not without enemies, and silicon-based life also needs to worry about external threats, such as radiation from space, even small rocky planets can provide a good living environment for silicon-based life.
epilogue
Although silicon-based life has a high chance of surviving in the earth's crust, the silicate in the earth's crust is just a kind of food for silicon-based life, and the reproduction mode and genetic structure of silicon-based life are completely different from the life forms we know, so the biodiversity and evolutionary path of silicon-based life are unpredictable.
But what we can be sure of is that carbon-based life on the earth and the earth are very close, carbon-based life on the earth is inseparable from the earth, and at the same time, the earth cannot be separated from carbon-based life, have you ever thought about how the appearance of the earth will change if all life on the earth is silicon-based life?
Perhaps the Earth we see will be the same as the Earth we see now, but what will life be like on Earth?