One element is the backbone of all forms of life we’ve ever discovered on Earth: carbon. Number six on the periodic table is, to the best of our knowledge, impossible to live without. In this episode of Reactions, discover what makes carbon so exceptional, its nearly infinite capabilities, and potential intergalactic implications.
Sources:
- The search for life in our Solar System and theimplications for science and society
- The search for signs of life on exoplanets at theinterface of chemistry and planetary science
- Biosignature Gases: A Needle in a Haystack
- The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems (2007)
- Could silicon be the basis for alien life forms, just as carbon is on Earth
- Shine on you crazy diamond: why humans are carbon-based lifeforms
- These Exoplanets Could Have the Right Chemical Reactions for Life to Emerge, Study Finds
- Life – but not as we know it
- Can Life Evolve From a Different Chemical Code?
- ALTERNATIVE BIOCHEMISTRIES
- Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon-silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life.
- Biogenic? Mars Rover Takes Photos of 'Mushrooms' Growing on Red Planet’s Rocks
- Signaling Molecules and Their Receptors
