Silicon doesn’t form the same kind of long chain molecules that carbon does under normal conditions. It’s possible to make silanes, but they tend to be unstable. It’s more likely that any life which isn’t carbon based is really exotic, using some truly alien chemistry.

This is one of the things that scares me the most about teams of scientists modifying embryos, the release of transgenic animals into the environment, the hard-on that everyone seems to have for Crispr (a system that makes it suuuuuuper easy to snip bad genes out of living cells).... We haven’t tested these things, we…

Are there specific gene requirements for the development of specific autoantibodies? How much does environment come into play in their development and why can multiple people have identical autoantibodies without manifesting the same conditions?

First big thing about recombinant genetics safety stuff was the conference in Asilomar in ’75, which is definitely worth looking into since it’s a a topic you’re curious about. Current regulations are mostly country-by-country.

This is why the “they’re favoring men” media freak out over only treating male fetuses with mitochondrial diseases drove me up the wall. It was explicitly because if anything went wrong the genetic change wouldn’t be passed to future generations. Not some grand patriarchy shut down of women’s health.

I could accept this as a scientific answer though. If it came with pie.

why is it easier to balance upright on a bicycle when it’s moving forward than when it’s still?

Fucking magnets, how do they work?