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potassium

Rincewind

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Hi all,

I'm currently researching a Sci-Fi novel, and have noted that Potassium is vital for human life.

Now I'm not a scientist, so I've been doing a whole load of reading!

Is there another element that could perform the same/similar functions as K for a different form of sentient life?

Thanks in advance!
 
It's all about the ions and electrical conduction. There must be plenty of optional ions.
 
Rubidium seems an obvious choice, given that it can substitute directly for potassium in human tissues. One of its isotopes is slightly radioactive, which could make things more interesting, because it might look like a life form needing radioactivity to function, when in fact it simply needs rubidium. Just a thought.

Dave
 
Dave Rogers said:
Rubidium seems an obvious choice, given that it can substitute directly for potassium in human tissues. One of its isotopes is slightly radioactive, which could make things more interesting, because it might look like a life form needing radioactivity to function, when in fact it simply needs rubidium. Just a thought.

Dave
Click to expand...

Potassium also has a common radioactive isotope, which is why we have the banana equivalent dose. So you might be able to stretch that radioactivity concept even further.
 
Ziggurat said:
Potassium also has a common radioactive isotope, which is why we have the banana equivalent dose. So you might be able to stretch that radioactivity concept even further.
Click to expand...

Might be interesting to consider what differences a life-form that evolved with more radioactivity might have, as well.

I could imagine a lot more error-correcting and protection in their DNA and/or equivalent. Maybe even as far as having three distinct genomes, and a mechanism so that replication takes the two out of the three that match? Have no idea how that might work, but could give you interesting directions to go in :)
 
Rincewind said:
Hi all,

I'm currently researching a Sci-Fi novel, and have noted that Potassium is vital for human life.

Now I'm not a scientist, so I've been doing a whole load of reading!

Is there another element that could perform the same/similar functions as K for a different form of sentient life?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Why not sodium? Then you could have Lithium substitute for Sodium. Electrical differentials across membranes are preserved by sodium potassium exchange pumps, so why not sodium lithium pumps. You also could have a bigger use of magnesium and calcium.
 
The alkali metals all behave pretty similarly. They are different enough that you can't just substitute one for another in human physiology, but there's no special attributes that make potassium specifically required for life, no critical role in life in general that something else would have to substitute for. It wouldn't be unreasonable for an organism to just lack it entirely, or even find it poisonous due to its disturbance of their bodily lithium-sodium ion balance.
 
Take a look at the periodic table. Any element in the same column as potassium will do. All elements in the same column have similar reactions as the others in that column. Though they may react at a different rate and release or absorb different amounts of heat. In fact the inventor of the periodic table said there were certain elements that exist but had not been discovered. He predicted what these elements' characteristics would be and was later shown to be correct.

https://www.ptable.com/
 
Sorry to yuk up an otherwise informative and smart thread. I remember an episode of The X-Files where there was a sillicon based life form (since sillicon is below carbon on the periodic table).
 
So an organism with a lithium fluoride based chemistry rather than sodium chloride would be very reactive, perhaps safer in a cold environment. Whilst your potassium bromide based silicon life form might need a lot of heat to ensure reactions happened.
 
rjh01 said:
Take a look at the periodic table. Any element in the same column as potassium will do. All elements in the same column have similar reactions as the others in that column. Though they may react at a different rate and release or absorb different amounts of heat. In fact the inventor of the periodic table said there were certain elements that exist but had not been discovered. He predicted what these elements' characteristics would be and was later shown to be correct.

https://www.ptable.com/
Click to expand...


They do something like that in Evolution (2001) the relative positions of carbon and arsenic to nitrogen and selenium. Suggesting that as arsenic is poisonous to us (carbon based life) selenium might be poisonous to the nitrogen based aliens.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_(2001_film)
 
cow_cat said:
Sorry to yuk up an otherwise informative and smart thread. I remember an episode of The X-Files where there was a sillicon based life form (since sillicon is below carbon on the periodic table).
Click to expand...

Star Trek, and some others I can't recall, did that as well.
 
Planigale said:
So an organism with a lithium fluoride based chemistry rather than sodium chloride would be very reactive, perhaps safer in a cold environment. Whilst your potassium bromide based silicon life form might need a lot of heat to ensure reactions happened.
Click to expand...


Well, not necessarily, because we’re talking about ionic lithium and fluorine, rather than elemental. I think the higher reactivity of the elemental forms would make the ions more stable rather than more reactive.
 
cjameshuff said:
The alkali metals all behave pretty similarly. They are different enough that you can't just substitute one for another in human physiology, but there's no special attributes that make potassium specifically required for life, no critical role in life in general that something else would have to substitute for. It wouldn't be unreasonable for an organism to just lack it entirely, or even find it poisonous due to its disturbance of their bodily lithium-sodium ion balance.
Click to expand...


I suspect that life evolved using sodium and potassium simply because they are the two most abundant alkali metals.
 
In "The Andromeda Strain" the alien life had just the same basic elements of life as here, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The organization of those elements and function of the life-form was just radically different.
 
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