I’m reading up a bit on the possibility of silicon-based life forms tonight. While this area of science borders on speculative, it makes for interesting reading.

Here’s a couple of cool links on the subject:

This fragment of Wikipedia’s Silicon Biochemistry paragraph gives you the scientific primer on the concept…

The most common other proposed basis for an alternative biochemical system is the silicon atom, since silicon has many similar chemical properties to carbon and is in the same periodic table group. Silicon has a number of handicaps as a carbon analogue, however. Because silicon atoms are much bigger, having a larger mass and atomic radius, they have difficulty forming double or triple covalent bonds, which are important for a biochemical system. Silanes, which are compounds of hydrogen and silicon that are analogous to the alkane hydrocarbons, are highly reactive with water, and long-chain silanes spontaneously decompose. Molecules incorporating polymers of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms instead of direct bonds between silicon, known collectively as silicones, are much more stable. It has been suggested that silicone-based chemicals would be more stable than equivalent hydrocarbons in a sulphuric-acid-rich environment, as is found in some extraterrestrial locations.[1] In general, however, complex long-chain silicone molecules are still more unstable than their carbon counterparts.