From Individual Biosignatures to Planetary Clusters: A Population-Level Framework for Detecting Extraterrestrial Life
To the point
Harrison B. Smith and Lana Sinapayen argue for an agnostic, population‑level search for life that looks for broad patterns across many planets, because life spreading between worlds could gradually alter environments and cause clusters of similar planets to emerge, signaling biology even when no single planet bears a clear biosignature.