# Variable: HYDROLYSIS

[**lifecycle-kit**](https://jonbogaty.com/lifecycle-kit/api/readme/index.md)

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[lifecycle-kit](https://jonbogaty.com/lifecycle-kit/api/readme/index.md) / [chem](https://jonbogaty.com/lifecycle-kit/api/chem/readme/index.md) / HYDROLYSIS


# Variable: HYDROLYSIS {#variable-hydrolysis}


> `const` **HYDROLYSIS**: `Record`\<`string`, `number`\>

Defined in: [chem/elements.ts:82](https://github.com/jbcom/lifecycle-kit/blob/074e4e7b8038d3e2de9eb44c4b5b5aee0ef02b48/src/chem/elements.ts#L82)

Susceptibility of a backbone's chains to attack by liquid water, 0..1.

The second reason Earth is carbon-based, and the conditional one. Si-Si and
Si-O-Si bonds are readily hydrolysed — silicon's affinity for oxygen is so
strong that in water it ends up as silicate rock rather than long chains,
which is exactly where Earth's silicon actually is. Carbon chains are stable
in water, which is why they got to build us.

This is why silicon biochemistry is dismissed for Earth-like worlds and
taken seriously for hot, dry ones: remove the liquid water and the objection
goes with it. Sulfur sits in between, forming chains that persist in water
but less readily than carbon's.

Values are relative susceptibilities rather than rate constants — the real
rates depend on pH and dissolved silica, which a creature simulation has no
business modelling. The ORDER is what matters and the order is not in doubt.