Why Is Life Based on Carbon and Not Silicon?
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2020
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about why life is based on carbon and not silicon, whether you should be using plastic or wood cutting boards, and how jealous feelings can help maintain friendships.
Why is life based on carbon and not silicon? by Cameron Duke
- Cosmic Evolution - Future. (2020). Harvard.Edu. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/cosmic_evolution/docs/fr_1/fr_1_future5.html
- Could silicon be the basis for alien life forms, just as carbon is on Earth? (1998, February 23). Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-silicon-be-the-basi/
- Petkowski, J. J., Bains, W., & Seager, S. (2020). On the Potential of Silicon as a Building Block for Life. Life, 10(6), 84. https://doi.org/10.3390/life10060084
Should you be using plastic or wood cutting boards? by Joanie Faletto
- Original episode: https://www.curiositydaily.com/plastic-vs-wood-cutting-boards-what-water-tastes-l/
Jealous feelings can help maintain friendships by Kelsey Duke
- Jealous feelings can act as a tool to strengthen friendships. (2020). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200811153911.htm
- Krems, J. A., Williams, K. E. G., Aktipis, A., & Kenrick, D. T. (2020). Friendship jealousy: One tool for maintaining friendships in the face of third-party threats? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000311
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:08.0 | And I'm Natalia Reagan. |
| 0:09.0 | Today you learn why life is based on carbon and not silicon, whether you should be using plastic or wood cutting boards, |
| 0:16.2 | and how jealous feelings can help maintain friendships. |
| 0:19.6 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:21.6 | When we look for life on other planets, |
| 0:25.0 | we tend to look for the telltale signs of carbon-based life. |
| 0:29.0 | But what is that exactly? |
| 0:31.0 | And how did carbon get such a sweet gig in the first place? is that |
| 0:35.0 | is that exactly. And how did carbon get such a sweet gig in the first place? Well, when scientists say that life on Earth is carbon-based, |
| 0:40.0 | they mean that the molecules that make up DNA, proteins, fats, and sugars all use carbon |
| 0:46.2 | liberally. Everything I just mentioned has massive molecules and carbon forms the |
| 0:52.1 | backbone for all of them. |
| 0:54.0 | That's no accident. Carbon has a valence of four, |
| 0:58.0 | which means it can bond with four other atoms at the same time. |
| 1:02.0 | It's the classic 2 by 2 LEGO brick. That versatility gives |
| 1:06.5 | it the ability to form the skeletons of complex molecules. Most other atoms can't do that. |
| 1:12.4 | That is, except silicon. Silicon also has a |
| 1:17.2 | valence of four, so it should be able to form many of the same types of |
| 1:21.5 | molecules that carbon can. |
| 1:23.0 | Plus, silicon is 135 times more common on Earth than carbon. |
... |
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