I can't find a link for you. I saw it on the Planet Earth program where this science-chick found it in a cave. Must have been a speculation.
Here is a Google page full of scientific theory about silicon based life. If Townes' wild theory is science then you can hardly dismiss all of those theories as not science. Which only goes to support an extremely minor side-point I made about the lack of knowledge about life's necessary parameters. Obviously there are plenty of scientists out there who think it's reasonable that life could be silicon based. What else is possible with regards to life if we speculate that the laws of physics could be other than they are?
Regardless of whether there exists any life form other than carbon based types my point stands that Townes makes a sweeping assumption based on an extremely limited data set that it is the only possible type. Further he makes the sweeping assumption based on no data sets whatsoever that the laws of physics could be other than they are.
Obviously there are plenty of scientists out there who think it's reasonable that life could be silicon based. What else is possible with regards to life if we speculate that the laws of physics could be other than they are?I don't know of anyone who thinks silicon based life exists on earth, although there is speculation it could exist at great heat, far underground.
Among other problems, silicon/oxygen compounds are solid. the equivalent carbon/oxygen compounds are gasses. This is not a trivial difference.