Page 70 - Miracles Within the Molecule

HArun yahya

pos si bil i ty of form ing very large mol e cu les. The car bo hy drates, pro teins
and nucle ic acids in the human body are siz a ble mol e cu les result ing
from car bon bonds of this kind.
Scientists spent years research ing wheth er there exists any other
ele ment that might replace car bon. The ele ment with fea tures most sim -
i lar to car bon's is sil i con, and they there fore assumed that sil i con should
build the kind of bonds that car bon does. Yet all their exper i ments were
fail ures: Silicon does not form com pounds with other ele ments in the
same way that car bon does, chief ly because of the pow er ful bonds that
car bon estab lish es with its own atoms. The very pow er ful bond that
forms between two car bon atoms allows the pos si bil i ty of longer, more
sta ble mol e cu les. Silicon, on the other hand, despite being a very close
rel a tive to car bon on the peri od ic table, was una ble to form strong
bonds with its own atoms, and the weak bonds it does estab lish are not
appro pri ate for long chains. In short, no other ele ment in nature is able
to replace car bon, once again empha siz ing this ele ment's impor tance. 23
Scientists are still car ry ing out research of this kind. The dis cov ery
of car bon on other plan ets will enlight en sci en tists as to wheth er there
once was life on Mars. Despite all the spec u la tion, how e ver, life forms
that are not car bon-based are clear ly impos si ble, for a great many rea -
sons.
A num ber of con di tions must be met for car bon to form its spe cial
organ ic com pounds. That's the main rea son why car bon-based life sur -
viv es on Earth, since ours is the only plan et known to pos sess the right
con di tions for car bon to give rise to com pounds.
For exam ple, the tem per a ture range nec es sa ry for car bon to form
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com pounds is between –2 and 120 C (between 28 F and 248 F). Carbon
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o
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com pounds begin to freeze at –20 C (–4 F) and to split apart at 120 C
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(248 F). In a for est fire, for instance, exces sive heat total ly alters the
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struc ture of tree trunks, and the car bon mol e cu les lose their orig i nal
struc ture as these com pounds are bro ken down. The car bon ized tree
now exhib its a dif fer ent black ened appear ance.
As you have seen, car bon com pounds begin to break down out side

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