Living cells bind silicon and carbon for the first time

I saw this news a couple of days ago and can't understand how nobody has post it here yet due to the obvious implications, you know... ALIENS

Enzymes that catalyze carbon–silicon bond formation are unknown in nature, despite the natural abundance of both elements. Such enzymes would expand the catalytic repertoire of biology, enabling living systems to access chemical space previously only open to synthetic chemistry. We have discovered that heme proteins catalyze the formation of organosilicon compounds under physiological conditions via carbene insertion into silicon–hydrogen bonds. The reaction proceeds both in vitro and in vivo, accommodating a broad range of substrates with high chemo- and enantioselectivity. Using directed evolution, we enhanced the catalytic function of cytochrome c from Rhodothermus marinus to achieve more than 15-fold higher turnover than state-of-the-art synthetic catalysts. This carbon–silicon bond-forming biocatalyst offers an environmentally friendly and highly efficient route to producing enantiopure organosilicon molecules.

Despite being the second most abundant element in earth crust, no life form integrate silicon into their biochemistry, this has always being a puzzle and have lead scientist to speculate how silicon based life could look, or if its even possible.

What they have done here is not silicon base life, but for the first time it was observe an organism process silicon into organic compounds, understand this as carbon-silicon bonds. Synthetic organic compounds with Si atoms exist for a long time, they are made via catalysis and its hard to do. At the beginning the bacteria was not able yield better results than catalyst, but selecting the specimens that yielded more of the molecules, researchers were able to evolve the bacteria in few generations to produce 15 times more than the chemical method.

Apart from the possible alien life implication to this, what does this abominations means for you?

Well cheaper and better flat screens in the future

So you know, if in the future an engineered bacteria eats the earth crust, it was for the TVs

science.sciencemag.org...

www.nature.com...

www.dailymail.co.uk... html

More realistic feeling fake boobs?

a reply to: AshFan

LOL, we can only hope.

As a side note I use organosilicates to make pickering emulsion (when I had a job anyways), so the stuff have lots of applications.

Errr, so with this you make polymer particles surround by a hard shell (organosilicate), then you can remove the polymer and fill the shell with a medicine, depending on the chemistry of the shell it can target release the drugs on cancer cells and stuff like that.

a reply to: Indigent

Great new opportunities to create flesh eating viruses and other deadly military applications that could easy infiltrate a host body and destroy it from the inside

a reply to: Spacespider

Sure man whatever floats your boat

a reply to: Indigent

Well we are a carbon based life form, i imagine if we can manage to bond silicon and carbon it would go a long way to addressing the problems we face regarding transhumanism and cybernetics.

Wouldn't that allow people to be integrated with silicon based chips? Or I'm i completely incorrect?

a reply to: andy06shake

a reply to: digital01anarchy

That's what I'm getting out of this too.

I just hope they can overcome the many complexion issues.

a reply to: andy06shake

What i get of this is that things like



Will be cheaper and easier to produce now.

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: andy06shake

What i get of this is that things like

Will be cheaper and easier to produce now.

12 straight lines... 4 atoms... 12 divided by 4 is 3. 3 times the shape of the atom (6) is 18, 8-1= 7, 7 dwarfs, poison apple, original sin... SATAN!!!

a reply to: AshFan

All i see there is that half life 3 has been confirmed...

a reply to: Indigent

Possibilities are endless taken to the logical conclusion but i imagine there will be other aberrations that manifest down to the integration of Man and machine(sand).

Look at it this way we store memory in a very biological carbon based manner, now if that process was somehow interchangeable with its silicone counterpart, a form of immortality, provided we can program a satisfactory illusion or facsimile, could be a possibility!

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Indigent

Possibility are endless taken to the logical conclusion but i imagine there will be other aberrations that manifest down to the integration of Man and machine(sand).

Look at it this way we store memory in a very biological carbon based manner, now if that process was somehow interchangeable with its silicone counterpart, a form of immortality, provided we can program a satisfactory illusion or facsimile.

Can you upload a soul along with all that data?

a reply to: AshFan

Well you would need to prove the existence of such first, not that i don't disagree, but who is to say souls cannot be copied, i mean in a sense is that not what the theory of reincarnation is all about?

All you would really be doing is replacing the alleged akashic record of accounts with its silicone equivalent.

Sacrilege or science, who are we clever monkeys to judge? Thats God dept, if we can do a thing we will.

a reply to: andy06shake

So then we have 2 identical souls, one original, one copied? WE ARE GODS!!! If only James Brown were still with us.

a reply to: AshFan

Well apparently we are created in his image, expectations are there in every father/mother/creators agenda while we relies it or otherwise.

End of the day i say lets be all we can be and not go quietly into the night without knowing there is a light burning at what ever other end of the tunnel.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Indigent

Possibilities are endless taken to the logical conclusion but i imagine there will be other aberrations that manifest down to the integration of Man and machine(sand).

Look at it this way we store memory in a very biological carbon based manner, now if that process was somehow interchangeable with its silicone counterpart, a form of immortality, provided we can program a satisfactory illusion or facsimile, could be a possibility!

Yeah, so then you could lay on the beach all day literally charging your batteries.

Silicone based lifeforms?

no forest on flat earth anyone?

a reply to: Aliensun

Still get sand in your arse through eh?

Obviously with such responsibility and endless ability to proceed without the hazard of mortality to contend with would breed change, for good or for the bad of our race who knows really, but like i said if we can do a thing, we generally, 9 times out of 10, do, do that thing.

The singularity is fast approaching, we as a species ether embrace the concept, or be hailed as extinct Gods that created such by our successors.