h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, how would/could silicon life work then

same as carbon based but with much fewer permutations.

Can anyone post up a link for the periodic table of elements and I'll have a go at explaining the significance of silicon. I'm IT "thick".

http://www.webelements.com/

tadarrr

Cool, looks loike there were a few more additions to the p/table than when I were a wee lass scratching answers in the chalkboard.

Yeah Si..silicon... in group 14 below carbon.

Work through silicon site given and check out the outer ring of electrons you'll find it bonds well, like carbon 12.

Stick with the C12 isotope.

So check out Si ...silicon.

The problem for life as we know it though is how water would fit. we need hyrdolysis for "our" sort of life. "ET" could use Si at much higher temps and pressures than earth.

Loopy have you just fin reading Salmon of Doubt, I mention this because of respect for the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, so have I, and DNA happens to mention to mention Si in the above title...and well, just wondered...

No, I studied the three sciences at A level in 1970.
In our group we always thought "ET" would be Si based.

Uh oh, I missed a,dents first posting about Si...

which proves that it is easy to miss a ball when juggling and multitaskin - to be online, deal and amuse a 5 yr old, cook dinner, watch tv, read a book, and get ready for work at the same time.

Due apologies loopy .... hehehee

I'll just go and stand in that corner over there for a bit and watch the occasional tables don't get up to anything....errr....does that mean that a periodic table is an occasional table too, or just periodically being a table and not occasional? Kinda worried about that now....

I dreampt I saw that I sat on teh stair,
I dreampt that the stair was just over there,
I drempt that as I drempt that I saw myself on the stair, that I was not there.

That imposter Mendelev and his pretend periodic table.

Here is the REAL THING: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundyou/periodic.shtml

Mendelev's original, today's universally accepted "standard", a proposed "Alexander" arrangement, and many others in the shapes of tetrahedrons, pyramids, spirals, etc...

I like that periodic table better blicky...

It's a subtle way to get folks interested in Science.
I hope it works...God knows we need more.

You know, I always noticed that science students smoked ahelluva lot more pot than the art students...not implying at all that I ever smoked pot I go on enuff mind benders and twisters without any chemical help...

*chuckles*

Fish, vix, eat fish. Big mistake for me. I needed to eat more fish.
I drank like a fish. Big mistake. Brain food...fish. Eat fish!

yes, yes, yes, YES for 'eavens sake, I 'eard you! Relax you are way to tense about the need for

there is also the curious coincidence between science (particularly physics and astrophysics) students and rock bands. I belive Bryan May was a physics or astrophysics students before Queen and there are several more.

Several more rock bands...surely you dont mean there are several more Bryan Mays, there just aint enough hair in the world for that to be true.