What exactly does it mean when scientists say life here is Carbon based?
Life on earth (I hope that’s what you mean by ‘here’ lol) is made largely of molecules based on carbon atoms. Among all the elements on the periodic table, carbon shows the greatest diversity of chemical bonds with other atoms — including other carbons. This is a key feature of organic chemistry and biochemistry. Life ‘as we know it’ would not work with any other element substituting for carbon — not even silicon as some have proposed. Carbon-based chemistry supports the degree of complexity that we observe in living things.
