While life on Earth relies exclusively on carbon and water, astrobiologists and chemists actively study inorganic life and alternative biochemistries to understand how life might exist in vastly different forms. Here is a brief overview of the leading theoretical and experimental models:

Plasma Crystals In space-like conditions, inorganic dust particles suspended in plasma can become polarized and spontaneously self-organize into double-helix structures resembling DNA. These helical strands can attract one another, divide to create identical copies, and evolve as less stable structures break down, displaying several fundamental hallmarks of living matter.

The Clay Hypothesis Proposed by chemist A.G. Cairns-Smith, this theory suggests that the first self-replicating systems on Earth were inorganic clay crystals rather than complex orga ...