4 ms·
carbon is unique among elements in the number of molecules it can form. silicon is a distant second and everything else is pretty much a non starter. water is
by gameswithgo 6y ago
carbon is unique among elements in the number of molecules it can form. silicon is a distant second and everything else is pretty much a non starter.
water is less of a requirement but you need some kind of liquid for the reactions to occur in and their arent many candidate liquids at plausible temperatures
- DoctorOetker 6y agohogwash stability is not a strict function of molecular structure and atomic composition, it is also a function of environmental factors like temperature, pressure, acidity, ... The reason many of those inorganic polymers on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_polymer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_polymer have a dangling string of "unprocessable" attached is because they're simply reactive with other chemical species (organic or inorganic) in our biosphere, or simply less or unstable at our earthly standard conditions... if humanity does ever make contact with alien species, we might get tempted to invite them in our Czochralsky crucible if they are rare enough, and vice versa