Publisher's Synopsis
Silicon decoded is a fictional story of DNA written by a scientist who studied it for more than a decade. It is also a story about an extraterrestrial life. In his first fictional novel, Dae-sil reveals the essence of DNA and the everyday research life in bioindustry by using scientific facts and minimizing excessive exaggeration. This novel is first of its kind describing extraterrestrial life on earth with silicon-based genetic material. Silicon decoded is a story about Doi Kim, a researcher in an electrical company experiencing the existence of extraterrestrial life while he develops the next generation semiconductor material. In order for life to survive in an extreme environment, it needs to have very stable biological structure. Silicon is a molecule with similar chemical properties to carbon that could withstand stress better in the extreme environment. Transformability is another requirement to survive in space. Single cell organisms are better suited to adapt and survive than multicellular organism in space, but to have intellect the organism must be able to evolve into multicellular form with biological organs quickly. Next is to have the genetic material chemically stable in order for it to survive and proliferate. Genes must be preserved in order to start life and proliferate the species. Silicon DNA is most adequate to be the genetic material of alien life because of these requirements. Dae-sil is trying to tell us that DNA may not be the only form of storage system for genetic information, that there could be a life of an extraterrestrial origin with silicon-based DNA, and that this alien life could be living among us. He ends the story by sharing his thoughts on the origin of life.
