Hypothetical types of biochemistry are forms of biochemistry speculated to be scientifically viable but not proven to exist at this time. While the kinds of living beings we know on Earth commonly use carbon for basic structural and metabolic functions, water as a solvent and DNA or RNA to define and control their form, it may be possible that undiscovered life-forms could exist that differ radically in their basic structures and biochemistry from that known to science.
The possibility of extraterrestrial life being based on these "alternative" biochemistries is a common subject in science fiction, but is also discussed in a non-fiction scientific context.
Read more about Hypothetical Types Of Biochemistry: Scientists Who Have Considered This Topic, Alternative-chirality Biomolecules, Non-carbon-based Biochemistries, Carbon-based Alternatives To Hydrocarbons, Chlorine As An Alternative To Oxygen, Arsenic As An Alternative To Phosphorus, Selenium or Tellurium As An Alternative To Sulfur, Non-water Solvents, Usage in Fiction
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“The American man is a very simple and cheap mechanism. The American woman I find a complicated and expensive one. Contrasts of feminine types are possible. I am not absolutely sure that there is more than one American man.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)