OT: Extrasolar planets discovered directly

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Perhaps silicon beings don't have such complex and long polymer chains and therefore are simpler, but this does not mean that they cannot be alive. Perhaps their "DNA" length is as long as a human's, but simply cut up into much more small pieces - chromosomes, anyone?

And silicon isn't the only element in the periodic table next to carbon. I'm utterly terrible at chemistry (or science in general), but I think that to support life the building blocks don't need to posess similar properties as carbon. For all we know, there might be iron-based life forms out there debating whether or not carbon-based life is possible.

And if carbon-based life does exist, why does it have to be Earthlike carbon life? Diamonds are carbon, why couldn't there be diamond-like beings out there? Carbon-based yet totally different from Terran life. And even if it looks like Terran life, what criteria are there save for oxygen-breathing, water-needing creatures? Plants breathe carbon dioxide, yet are still considered Terran life. And if we compare Terran life forms, are they so alike? What are the similarities between, say, a stag deer and a clump of moss? An elephant and an oak tree? A Bengal tiger and an amoeba?