[0x00_NULL]

Silicon has almost the exact same properties as carbon. At high temperatures, carbon chains can’t form, but silicon chains can. In a high-temperature or high-pressure range, silicon might for a basis for life, analogous to carbon for us. So, not only was that question not stupid, it was profound.

Look at silicon on the periodic table. All of the things that make carbon great, basically silicon has almost exactly, except it needs a high temperature for most of those properties to be expressible.

That teacher didn’t know what he was talking about. Ridiculing a student for questions is such detestable behavior. The silliest questions can end up being the most insightful. I really despise teachers like that.

Here is a paper all about how your question was actually wonderful.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345352/

[zdragnar]

Silicon has only superficial similarities to carbon. Even at high temperatures, water and oxygen prevent silicon from substituting for carbon in any of what we are familiar with as organic molecules.

Your linked paper points out that the only viable solvent that supports a large variety of silicon chemistry is sulphuric acid, and even then it would need to be very poor in oxygen since silicon-oxygen bonds are so strong it ends up being much more strongly preferred over si-si bonds.

It makes for an interesting conversation, but I can't imagine spending an entire class going over what amounts to a massive distraction from the lesson plan.

All that's left is going to amount to an effectively dismissive answer, I suppose (though I agree that teachers who are intentionally dismissive are doing it wrong).

[0x00_NULL]

Wouldn’t an environment that has a significant sulfuric acid content naturally also a relatively limited free oxygen?

I’m thinking of Venus. That sort of environment would satisfy all criteria and would also start to get into the temperature ranges that would make Si-Si bonds possible.

That would at-least bracket the types of planets and their history to a useful extent.