Liquid water on Saturn moon could support life

[Dr Strangelove]

Only carbon is able to form the chemically complex and diverse macromolecular polymers necessary to expedite the varoious functions of living organisms. It is the primary constituent of the nucleic acids that store the genetic code, of the incredibly complex variety of proteins which catalyse anabolic and catabolic enregy producing and synthetic processes, the fats and carbohydrates that store energy and comprise a number of structural forms. Silicon is not capable of forming such a wide variety of molcular forms, nor is any other atom.

[Guynemer]

All true, Dr. S. But, as I said, we are basing all this on an N of 1. It may be unlikely that there life could evolve in a wildly different chemical environment, but is it impossible? There's really no way to say for sure.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Guynemer
All true, Dr. S. But, as I said, we are basing all this on an N of 1. It may be unlikely that there life could evolve in a wildly different chemical environment, but is it impossible? There's really no way to say for sure.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Life requires continuous chemical reactions, so it's rather unlikely that life elsewhere won't be based on carbon,

I'd have to agree. It is the lightest element with the highest possible number of free electrons. The elements below carbon on the periodic table have the same number of free electrons but are rarer cosmologically speaking.