My “ Silicon-Carbon-based life” project consists of 4 NFTs of advanced graphic synthesis correlated and inspired by the research of genetics in xenon biology, with videos and music.

In the fourth NFT " Silicon-Carbon based life: Primordial rot" I imagined the ephemeral life and death of the organism due to the precarious bonds between silicon and oxygen and hydrogen molecules.

In 2016 a group of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech: http://fhalab.caltech.edu/) coordinated by Frances H. Arnold (specialized in biocatalysis, protein engineering, evolutionary enzymatic and synthetic biology), managed to create carbon-silicon bonds in living cells, demonstrating, for the first time, that nature can incorporate silicon into DNA molecules, creating silicon-based xeno DNA. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_OTCQ_fxuc&t=32s)

Silicon has never been incorporated into any kind of biochemistry on Earth. Theoretically, it would have been just as easy for silicon-based life forms to evolve on our planet as it was for carbon-based life forms.

One of the most important characteristics of silicon is the ability to form bonds with four atoms at the same time. This means that it is able to bind together the long chains of molecules necessary to form the bases, proteins and DNA and give rise to life.

In biochemistry, nature exploits a number of common metals: the inclusion of iron in red blood cells and magnesium in chlorophyll. But silicon (an element that has properties of both metals and non-metals) appears to be present only in bio-inorganic compounds.

It is present in the shells of unicellular algae called Diatoms, which use it to build a protective barrier around their body.

It is also present in Horsetails, considered the most ancient and widespread plants on almost all continents: they extract silicon from the earth and concentrate it in the stem, making it hard and difficult to chew to discourage herbivores.

Researchers began the creation of silicon and carbon-based organisms by isolating a protein, which generates Silicon and which occurs naturally in the Rhodothermus Marinus bacterium, which thrives in Icelandic hot springs. This protein has been inserted into the genetic makeup of a bacterium that commonly lives in our body (Escherichia coli), to create a xeno bacterium.

This discovery opens up a real possibility of being able to create a life form with a genetic base of silicon-carbon xeno Dna with extraordinary implications for astrobiology: a possibility of life on other silicon-rich planets. This discovery could also help doctors and researchers to develop new drugs and innovative industrial catalysts.

For more information on the entire project, I invite you to visit Silicon-Carbon based life: https://sites.google.com/view/silicon-based-life/nft-portfolio

For more information on the scientific basis of the project, I invite you to visit the Xeno Genetics Research Center: https://sites.google.com/view/silicon-based-life/life-based-silicon

For more information on music, I invite you to visit: https://sites.google.com/view/robertomusci/home

2618 × 1896 px video (190.5 MB)

Music: 44.100 Khz, 24 bit

Musical instruments: El.Guitar , voice ,percussion ,Vcs3 ,Buchla

A gif to the buyer to download via We Transfer:

• 9 images of the Silicon-Carbon based life project in png format, 2157x1348, resolution 144x144
• The complete piece of music of the NFT soundtrack.