#30DaysOfScikuChallenge

Life & Earth: Deep Friends

A Periodic Table Sciku Haiku

Carbon, valence four Silicon, add one shell more C: Life, Si: Earth

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The Periodic Table (of the Elements) is very nifty. Carbon is in the second row. Silicon is directly under it in the third. Elements in the same column have similar properties. Carbon has a valence of four, which means it likes to bond with four other atoms. It basically likes to bond with other carbons and hydrogens. Nitrogens and oxygens like to sneak in, too. Give it a little liquid water, sprinkle in some phosphorus and sulphur just for fun, cook for a few hundred million years, and voila! We get Life.

Silicon is like a heavy carbon. It also likes to form four bonds, but really prefers to link up with oxygens instead. SiO4 is quartz. Sprinkle in various metals, etc., for color, and you get a lot of different rocks.

Carbon: Life. Silicon: Earth. We’re related.

(Si is read “Es Eye,” so I get away with a haiku, sciku, too.)

Who says science can’t be fun?

• *For more on the #30DAYSOFSCIKUCHALLENGE — science-inspired haiku.