| "We wanted to come up with a way of looking for life that was kind of agnostic, where we didn't have to make any assumptions about life at all." Stuart Marshall, University of Glasgow |
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| Universal Life Detection: Astrobiology & Assembly Theory Featuring Stuart Marshall, Dr. Cole Mathis, Dr. Heather Graham, & Professor Lee Cronin |
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How do we search for life as we don't know it?
A team of NASA-funded astrobiologists and theoreticians have devised a new method for life detection that applies molecular assembly theory to the search for biosignatures. Rather than look for biological features, the team uses chemical complexity to measure the probability that a scientific sample contains signs of life. This novel technique will help current and future astrobiology missions to discover life beyond Earth!
The study, “Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry,” was published in the journal Nature Communications. |
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