Celestia Forums

I'm wondering what solvents other than water that could be used in a biochemistry existing at earth-like temperature? I'm interested in some of the more exotic alternative biochemistries speculated about. Any ideas?

This site has some interesting articles on alternative biochemistry.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encycloped ... f_life.htm

Not sure if it has what you're looking for though.

I've been to that site, and I only found the most commonly used ones, so that's not much help.

I read something interesting that could make for an extremely exotic biochemistry: at pressures of 96 atm, hydrogen cyanide (in theory) stays liquid over a fairly water-like range, so given earth-like temperatures, a non-celluar biology and a rather strange biochemistry could develop. Seems highly unlikely though.