Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by SAI_Peregrinus 93 days ago
CO, CO2, carbonate salts like Na2CO3, or CaCO3, and cyanides like HCN, NaCN, and KCN are usually considered inorganic compounds instead of organic compounds, despite containing carbons. But the vast majority of carbon-containing compounds are considered organic, and there are no organic compounds that don't contain carbon.
1 comments

> there are no organic compounds that don't contain carbon

It's very much nitpicking and an edge case but now you've got me wondering if some silicone hydrocarbon analogs might not qualify. Noting that we have plausible theories about the feasibility of silicone based life.

> we have plausible theories about the feasibility of silicone based life.

... Do we? Last I heard those weren't really viable due to some combination of being too stable or too unstable in all the available solvents.

Maybe I'm out of date then. They looked plausible when I read about them years ago.