In 1998, Russian scientist Albert Bokovikov made a sensational statement about his discovery of a new form of life.
An extensive article on this topic, supplied with convincing color photographs, was published by the researcher in the journal Consciousness and Physical Reality, # 6, 1998.
It turns out that on Earth, and maybe on other Earth-like planets of the Universe, the silicon form of life lives and flourishes simultaneously with the protein form. A. Bokovikov called it Krey.
The scientist drew attention to the fact that there is no method in the world by which one can prove that it is alive or inanimate. Therefore, he proposed his own original methodology, combining similar signs of protein and silicon life forms. This, first of all, refers to such a basic feature of life as reproduction.
It is known that there are several million forms of biological living beings (species) on Earth, and the number of silicon forms, says A. Bokovikov, cannot be specified.
The silicon life form in the research of the scientist is represented by agates, well-known to everyone and quite common in nature. For many years of work, using the example of this mineral, the team of A. Bokovikov discovered a number of signs of silicon life, similar to biological forms.
(Agate is a mineral, cryptocrystalline type of quartz. It is a fine-fibered aggregate of chalcedony with a layered texture and banded color distribution).
As a plant form of silicon organisms, agate is not immortal, although it lives for millions of years. The organism of agate, represented in the research by samples of different ages, is characterized by a clearly defined anatomy: skin (spiral, multilayer); crystalline body; striped body; bottom-mirror (organ, the purpose of which the scientist could not establish; perhaps it is a kind of analogue of the visual analyzer). Agates have skin that sheds and can even regenerate. Mineral, like all living things, gets sick and heals wounds (chips and cracks).
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During their long, albeit not stormy, life, agates feed, capture new living spaces, and in dynamics retain their complex forms.
But the most interesting thing is that agates, it turns out, are bisexual: the striped body is the male body, the crystalline body is the female body. They also have genes - crystals of the female body.
Minerals can multiply in several ways, in particular, by seed propagation (seed nucleation in the parent agate body; seed exit from the parent body). In addition, A. Bokovikov proved on specific samples that agates can still reproduce by budding, division with the formation of dividing centers, cloning and the method of mosaic division.
The scientist traced the reproduction of agate by cryotes (embryos) in basalt. At the same time, he identified the following processes: nucleation of cryotes in basalt; development of embryos; the birth of a baby agate; transformation of cryotes into organisms; the formation of spherical structures around the embryos; death of cryotes in basalt (zygotes and cryotes are round).
The birth of the cryota is shown in the photos below.
While collecting and researching agates, A. Bokovikov discovered an amazing fact. It turned out that many stones (not agates) also have seeds!
The author is far from thinking that all these stones are alive, but he considers them to be something like a kind of silicon soil on which everything grows, in particular, the seeds of other living stones grow on it.
Vladimir Streletsky