Exploring a Biological Question: the Carbon Importance to Life

Do you know the carbon importance to life? Carbon is the most basic element among C, H, O, and N elements that account for more than 90 percent of all elements in the body. The reason is that biological macromolecules are made up of carbon chains as their skeleton. In addition, all organisms are carbon-based organisms in this world. The carbon base forms the foundation of life and controls the basic metabolism in living organisms. It is because of the vital role of carbon atoms in biological macromolecules that scientists say that "Carbon is the core element of life" and that "Without carbon, there is no life". Next, the carbon importance to life is further elaborated from three aspects. 

1. Carbon-based is the basis of life

All life on earth is carbon-based life, so the carbon group is the foundation of life. The so-called carbon-based is a group of atoms based on carbon and water. Carbon connects the amino and carboxyl groups, which make up biological macromolecules such as genetic material and proteins, and so they are called carbon-based. All life in this world, including human beings, is carbon-based. No matter who or what kind of life is, it is based on carbon and water. Without carbon and water, life will go extinct.

2.Carbon groups control the metabolism of life

Carbon groups make up the basic proteins, nucleic acids, pyrimidines, purines, and other substances that have different roles in living organisms and control one's metabolism. Any characteristics of living things such as metabolism, reproduction, and evolution rely on chemical reactions. For example, cheetahs chase their prey, chameleons change the color of their body surfaces, and plants are phototropic. 

All these reactions are supported by chemical reactions in the organism and the activity of carbon-based molecules lays the foundation for these chemical reactions. The activity of carbon-based molecules ensures that chemical reactions in the body can take place promptly, and also promotes genetic evolution and mutation in organisms. 

3.All living things in nature are carbon-based organisms

As long as they are a kind of organism, they must obtain energy from the outside world to maintain their survival. The basic compounds for storing energy of carbon-based organisms are carbohydrates, in which complex polymer compounds can be formed due to the equal ability of carbon atoms to gain and lose electrons. After a series of reactions, they release energy and produce water and carbon dioxide, which maintains the basic metabolism of living things. The highest amount of carbon, accounting for 55.99 percent, is found in the dry weight of cells, which further emphasizes its importance in living organisms.

Can silicon replace carbon as the core element of life?

After talking about carbon importance to life, maybe the question, isn't there another element that can replace carbon, will be raised. As an element in the same cycle as carbon, silicon is extremely similar to carbon and theoretically capable of evolving silicon-based organisms, so why hasn't it emerged? As early as 1891, an astrophysicist at the University of Potsdam explored the possibility of the existence of life based on silicon, and scientists have done a lot of research based on his hypothesis since then, so can silicon live up to its name and become the core element of life?

Through the continuous development of science and the deepening of research on the element silicon, there is a finding that the element silicon has a lot of shortcomings compared to the element carbon. For example, the connecting ability of silicon is too bad to form macromolecular compounds containing tens of thousands of carbon atoms like that of carbon.

The silane formed by silicon is very unstable when the number of silicon atoms in the formation of silanes is more than eight. Silanes are extremely unstable, so silicon-hydrogen and silicon-silicon bonds will be destroyed by a variety of solvents, which means that silicon-based life can’t be used in ammonia or water as the carrier of life. 

Conclusion

It is necessary to sum up the main views on the topic of “carbon importance to life”. Carbon is known as the core element of life by scientists because all living things in the world are carbon-based, which controls the metabolism of life and humans are no exception. In addition, carbon occupies the highest weight of stem cells. Some scholars have speculated whether silicon can take place in carbon to play a vital role in life, but this is just a hypothesis, not a fact.