Molecular Diversity as a Biosignature: An Ecology-Inspired, Data-Driven Path to Detect Life Beyond Earth
To the point
A new method uses ecological diversity patterns in amino acids and fatty acids to distinguish living chemistry from nonliving chemistry, even in degraded samples, and provides a data‑driven biosignature detectable with current space instruments that strengthens life detection when combined with other methods, says Fabian Klenner.
