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extraterrestrial life and arachnids breathe silicon sand (part II of II)

recap a little story, we find ourselves on a planet orbiting a sun belongs to a distant galaxy , we call this planet "Flint-1." In Flint-1 does not exist an environment as green as in earth, life has been generated here has managed to work with poor and exotic chemistry. In fact, there is little liquid water, this is concentrated in small ponds that evaporate rapidly due to the intense heat of this desert rough and dry. For this desert arachnids constantly migrate in search of food. These beings have a leisurely walk due to a slow metabolism and a thick exoskeleton of minerals based on silicon chemistry (remember that in Flint-1 carbon was not the major building block of life).
In Flint-1 is an atmosphere with a small concentration of oxygen, which has formed oceans of silicone (a polymer stable silicon) which extend over large areas. In these oceans, with a consistency similar to gel water, living creatures that have adapted to these physicochemical characteristics of the medium, which sometimes fall prey to the spiders on the coasts, but the diet of spiders is based more on humans similar to plants of our planet earth. Flint-1 exist in beings called "crystals" as far look similar to quartz, which is a mineral based on silicon dioxide or silica (SiO2):

The crystals have a much more complicated due to the fact that as the sand spiders breathe , they must "breathe." That is why the crystals have acquired the ability to be moderately mobile to find nearby SiO2 also have the characteristic of being very colonial, where large groups are similar to a coral reef in the desert of Flint-1.
The crystals have had to find ways to defend themselves against predation by spiders, which is why many have extremely rigid structures, as well as various toxins that cross the structure. On the other hand, the spiders have evolved over time powerful jaws and a tuned immune system, the result of natural selection, which has been responsible for this war arms between the powerful representatives of Flint-1.
Humans have not yet been able to come to this planet, because of an unimaginable distance to our mind. However, several probes have made explorations, by which we know these superficial aspects of life on this strange planet.
Unfortunately, it appears that in these corners of the universe still no intelligent life emerges. After several failed attempts at communication, the answer is always a profound silence. It appears that silicon is not a good brick for a brain powerful, but not so, for an exciting life.
hope you liked this true work of science fiction, I am sorry to disappoint but I told them this would be more art than science, because, as concluded in the previous trial, finding life based on silicon chemistry is practically nil, even there are "biomolecules" silicon. But never mind, the imagination must be a fundamental aspect of science. I hope this brief tour of Flint-1 is at the height of the "floaters" of Jupiter by Carl Sagan.

Any comments or input, feel free to do so!

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New blog: The Pillars of Science

Welcome to my blog. From January 2011 will begin to publish news, reviews, etc. on issues that we will provide the scientific world. All this will be using a language understood by everyone in order to reach maximum number of people and power transimitir can generate enthusiasm Science.

believe that science is the mother of technology, and technology in the current lifestyle is almost a necessity, therefore, if we know a little science, we understand how it will be developing our lifestyle.

addition, this'll bring my bit to increase the dissemination of science, which I consider necessary and, in my opinion, fascinating, and thus gradually able to return everything that science is bringing me .

I hope you enjoy and colaboréis with "The Pillars of Science." See you in 2011. ---


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Scott Kay's Ring The Regal

extraterrestrial life and arachnids exhale silicon sand (Part I of II)

now know that there are beings capable of replacing the phosphorus by arsenic in their biochemistry, however, the real building blocks of life are carbon atoms. This element is made all biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, etc. So the first question is: Why carbon has this role and no other element of the periodic table? The answer is that this element has characteristics ideal for this, such as atomic radius suitable (it is not too large, which leads to more unstable links, not too small, which leads to few electrons and a few links) its atomic number (number of protons and electrons), which allows it to bind up to 4 other atoms. Also, when you are forming molecules may possess different molecular orbital hybridizations (how electrons rearrange when atoms are linked to others), allowing you to form tetrahedra, triangles, planes, etc. This is a reflection of the various types of bonds that can form, such as single bonds, double and even triple very stable.
These, and other features that are not important now (the chemistry is a necessary evil for biologists) are those that make carbon and no other element, the main brick life. But as we said in the earlier trial, the elements of the periodic table found in the same group (column), have similar characteristics. Pay attention to the carbon group (fifth from left to right):

carbon Immediately below we have the silicon (Si), its closest chemical relative, which, unlike carbon, a nonmetal (carbon is a "non metal"). Grossly, the silicon can be used as follows:

As well described by its category, has a much more "cash" instead of carbon (no need upload a photo of this, remember a roast). However, at the atomic level, has many similar properties, such as Silicon can also link to other 4 atoms and may have some similar configurations of carbon, but ran into a first obstacle size. The silicon atoms are much larger than carbon atoms, if we make some simple calculations, we can imagine that if a carbon atom has the size of a ping-pong ball, an atom of silicon about the size of a ball villar. This is an impediment to the variety of links and the strength of these because, as silicon has more electrons, and many of these are further away from the core, are less strongly wedded to it (in technical terms, this means the electronegativity silicon is lower than that of carbon). This brings the problem that the atoms really like electrons, like oxygen, can cling tightly to this and very stable form long polymers such as silicone, which will reduce the chances of silicon to form complex biomolecules.
In summary, although theoretically the chemistry of silicon has many properties similar to carbon, this is not a good candidate to form biomolecules, and therefore, I hold the view that finding life based on the chemistry of other elements carbon is not negligible. However, let us forget a little of all these details and let fly the imagination, imagine that this is possible, how would these beings? I imagined beings who have called "spiders" of silicon. Since silicon gives us the intuitive impression of rigid structures, I imagine beings with heavy exoskeletons, like terrestrial arthropods, which would slow going, as a medieval knight in armor. Now, something interesting happens with your breathing: In our world, there is a group of people, call them "animals", which eat complex molecules based on carbon, these are the carbohydrates or just sugars. Then we use the oxygen in air to oxidize, releasing CO2 in this process, which is a gas that emanates from our nose. On the other hand, we have a group of beings that we call "plants" which use this CO2 and thanks to the power delivered by the sun, re-build these sugars for their use. These sugars are ingested by animals and thus fulfilled a cycle that is the basis of life on our planet.
But now, let's see what happens with our spiders: They eat "silica-sugars, which are oxidized by atmospheric oxygen, analogous to releasing the CO2, SiO2 or better known as" silica. " This compound is a gas, is a solid and is the main compound of the sand. So bugs that would Sandy exhale! So let's say you have a special channel in its structure, by which the sand is falling as they walk on a planet that likely would be a vast, dry desert.
These spiders need to eat "silica-sugars" from any source, similar to plants of our planet, and also I have imagined that some beings, but present them in the second part of this essay, which will be more art than science .

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NASA bacteria and arsenic: Why is this finding important? NASA announces

I think everyone expected the long-awaited news from the U.S. to have saved UFOs at Area 51, or perhaps show an interview with an alien of a distant galaxy. Unfortunately, sometimes the TV does not give us the best picture of reality, or worse, fills us with so many fantasies to show us "disappointed" with what happens in reality. This essay is to show that reality is much more exciting than the fiction of Hollywood.
Before explaining the finding, let's review the things we need to know to understand the significance of these bacteria:
living beings and any thing in the universe made of matter, are made up of atoms and molecules. All living things are mainly based on carbon chemistry of this element are made of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, lipids and virtually all molecules of biological significance. Carbon is so vital to life than the branch of chemistry that studies of this element is called "Organic Chemistry."
But all is not only carbon, are actually 6 more chemical elements found in living things, these are: Hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S ) and phosphorus (P). These elements are quite close in the periodic table, as shown in the image:

As you can see, for biologists only the first 3 rows of the periodic table are really interesting (Rows are called periods, the columns are called groups). And that these are the elements with biological significance. Now, one of the peculiarities of the periodic table is that the elements of the same group (column) have similar properties. Thus, sulfur (S) is the nearest chemical relative of oxygen (O), silicon (Si) is a close chemical relative of carbon (C) and arsenic (As) is a close chemical relative of phosphorus ( P) (goes around in this thing, kind).
long been known that some bacteria may use sulfur instead of oxygen to "breathe", is also known to some arthropods (animals external skeletons and jointed legs, such as spiders, insects and crustaceans) and molluscs (animals like octopus and snails) can use copper instead of iron to carry oxygen through their "blood." But all these small changes did not involve a normal change in the "architecture" of animal biochemistry. I mean, DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids are exactly the same, with the same atoms arranged in the same places. One can take DNA from a monkey, a fly, a worm, a spider and a bacterium and this will always be chemically identical, its building blocks remain the same, these pieces of Lego, they are called "Nucleotides"

As you can see, each nucleotide consists of 3 main parts, the outer part have a phosphate group (a phosphorous atom bound to 4 oxygens), which serves as a support or skeleton of the molecule (not lose sight of the phosphorus (P), this is the key figure in this.) This phosphate is attached to a sugar, which in the case of DNA called "deoxyribose" and this sugar is linked to a nitrogenous base, which can be A, T, C or G (no matter the technical name now.) This alphabet of 4 letters to decide whether you'll be a human, a chimpanzee or a jellyfish.
These nucleotides are grouped in pairs and form long chains in a ladder, which is what we all know as DNA, as shown in the image:

Now for the news: Why do these bacteria that "eat" arsenic are so impressive? The answer is that they have been the first living things that can literally swap the phosphorus by arsenic in their biochemical architecture. This means, for example, that in its DNA need not have phosphates, but can use arsenate (arsenic atom with 4 oxygen atoms). They can also replace the phosphorus in proteins, lipids and many of biological molecules.
If you meditate for a moment, we realize that life is much more "cunning" than we thought, because if there is no hand bricks to build houses, no problem, you can use some things that seem a brick that can offer the same solution.
This is a slap in the face to the entire scientific community because they thought it was an inescapable requirement of the existence of the chemical elements of the biology of our planet in other parts of the universe to find life. Now we know that we should not look the same we have here and that living beings from other planets probably have a much more exotic biochemistry and interesting than we thought.
so far not found any living being that has replaced the most widely used element in life, carbon, by someone else. But in the next essay will analyze the dream of many people and something that was very fashionable, the possibility of extraterrestrial life based on silicon chemistry.