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Does physics allow for many competing biologies or only one biology? I read sci-books about life based on silicon and I've read an article that said that other structure than DNA can encode genetic information.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/301888-researchers-find-more-than-1-million-alternatives-to-dna

So does physics allow for many competing biologies and what makes DNA-based biology the dominant biology on earth according to known physics laws?

Sayaman
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    Really more a chemistry and biology question. Consider though how many carbon molecules there are... – Jon Custer Mar 31 '21 at 01:29
  • There are many unknowns here. – Andrew Steane Mar 31 '21 at 01:35
  • Indeed, trying to derive possible alternatives to DNA from basic laws of physics like quantum field theory would not be practical. This really needs a higher level approach (chemistry and/or biology). – Eric Smith Mar 31 '21 at 01:59
  • The premise of your second question "what makes DNA-based biology the dominant biology on earth according to known physics laws?" implicitly assumes that the answer to your first question "does physics allow for many competing biologies" is "yes." Your second question also assumes that physical laws are relevant. It could be random chance in the environment. To give a toy example, suppose there are N possible chemical bases of biology. Then with 1/N probability DNA arose first on earth, but all subsequent life on earth is DNA-based because we share a common ancestor with this one random event. – Andrew Mar 31 '21 at 03:01
  • There is no other element that has the richness of organic chemistry - not even close. – Jon Custer Apr 05 '21 at 02:33

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