Silicon-based life ... begins with plants?

[Brian G Turner]

An interesting article on how some plants can use silicon as a defence:
Plants have evolved a taste for sand that deters hungry insects

However, something I'm taking from that article is the point that grasses at last can use silicon instead of carbon for building cell structures.

It got me thinking on how it's long been a conjecture that life might potentially develop on other worlds using silicon - and wondering if this article suggests that, to a certain extent, it is indeed feasible.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Silicon doesn't concatenate to anything like the degree carbon does. It's gotta be carbon! Even if Star Trek tells us otherwise...

 

[Serendipity]

The key to plants is chlorophyll a. It has the ring structure to allow the capture of sunlight energy. Apparently all the other substances that capture sunlight (at different parts of the spectrum) in plants then pass their energy to chlorophyll a that is then used to keep them going.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just noticed this interesting article, about the ability for silicone-based biomorphs to appear in highly alkaline environments:
Mineral self-assembly was common on primitive Earth - Astrobiology Magazine