Rational ignorance in the search for extra-terrestrial life

Future NASA scope would find life on alien worlds

(2023) Daniel Clery   SCIENCE

Mars rover detects carbon signature that hints at past life

(2022) Paul Voosen   SCIENCE

Measuring the melting curve of iron at super-Earth core conditions

(2022) Richard G. Kraus et al.   SCIENCE

Molten iron in Earth-like exoplanet cores

(2022) Youjun Zhang et al.   SCIENCE

Organic synthesis associated with serpentinization and carbonation on early Mars

(2022) A. Steele et al.   SCIENCE

Reexamination of 2.5-Ga “whiff” of oxygen interval points to anoxic ocean before GOE

(2022) Sarah P. Slotznick et al.   Science Advances

An exomoon survey of 70 cool giant exoplanets and the new candidate Kepler-1708 b-i

(2022) David Kipping et al.   Nature Astronomy

Clays and the Origin of Life: The Experiments

(2022) Jacob Teunis (Theo) Kloprogge et al.   Life-Basel

Science Objectives for Flagship-Class Mission Concepts for the Search for Evidence of Life at Enceladus

(2022) Shannon M. MacKenzie et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Catalytic Synthesis of Polyribonucleic Acid on Prebiotic Rock Glasses

(2022) Craig A. Jerome et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Global Mapping of Surface Composition on an Exo-Earth Using Sparse Modeling

(2022) Atsuki Kuwata et al.   ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

A prebiotically plausible scenario of an RNA–peptide world

(2022) Felix Müller et al.   NATURE

A possible path towards encoded protein synthesis on ancient Earth

(2022) Claudia Bonfio   NATURE

A wet heterogeneous mantle creates a habitable world in the Hadean

(2022) Yoshinori Miyazaki et al.   NATURE

Identifying the wide diversity of extraterrestrial purine and pyrimidine nucleobases in carbonaceous meteorites

(2022) Yasuhiro Oba et al.   Nature Communications

Organic carbon concentrations in 3.5-billion-year-old lacustrine mudstones of Mars

(2022) Jennifer C. Stern et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Did black volcanic rock help spark early life?

(2022) Robert F. Service   SCIENCE

Spacecraft sample collection and subsurface excavation of asteroid (101955) Bennu

(2022) D. S. Lauretta et al.   SCIENCE

Biofinder detects biological remains in Green River fish fossils from Eocene epoch at video speed

(2022) Anupam K. Misra et al.   Scientific Reports

Effects of Desiccation and Freezing on Microbial Ionizing Radiation Survivability: Considerations for Mars Sample Return

(2022) William H. Horne et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Detection of barium in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76b and WASP-121b

(2022) T. Azevedo Silva et al.   ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Identification of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere

(2022) et al.   NATURE

Density, not radius, separates rocky and water-rich small planets orbiting M dwarf stars

(2022) Rafael Luque et al.   SCIENCE

Three types of planets orbit red dwarfs

(2022) Johanna Teske   SCIENCE

JWST reveals first evidence of an exoplanet’s surprising chemistry

(2022) Jonathan O'Callaghan   NATURE

The origins of 'Oumuamua

(2021) Dov Greenbaum   SCIENCE

The evolution of oxygen-utilizing enzymes suggests early biosphere oxygenation

(2021) Jagoda Jabłońska et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Assessment of Isoprene as a Possible Biosignature Gas in Exoplanets with Anoxic Atmospheres

(2021) Zhuchang Zhan et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Habitability and Biosignatures of Hycean Worlds

(2021) Nikku Madhusudhan et al.   ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

Depsipeptide Nucleic Acids: Prebiotic Formation, Oligomerization, and Self-Assembly of a New Proto-Nucleic Acid Candidate

(2021) David M. Fialho et al.   JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry

(2021) Stuart M. Marshall et al.   Nature Communications

A robotic prebiotic chemist probes long term reactions of complexifying mixtures

(2021) Silke Asche et al.   Nature Communications

No evidence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus from independent analyses

(2021) G. L. Villanueva et al.   Nature Astronomy

Call for a framework for reporting evidence for life beyond Earth

(2021) James Green et al.   NATURE

Perseverance rover reveals an ancient delta-lake system and flood deposits at Jezero crater, Mars

(2021) N. Mangold et al.   SCIENCE

Energy at Origins: Favorable Thermodynamics of Biosynthetic Reactions in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA)

(2021) Jessica L. E. Wimmer et al.   Frontiers in Microbiology

Organic molecules revealed in Mars’s Bagnold Dunes by Curiosity’s derivatization experiment

(2021) M. Millan et al.   Nature Astronomy

The Prebiotic Kitchen: A Guide to Composing Prebiotic Soup Recipes to Test Origins of Life Hypotheses

(2021) Lena Vincent et al.   Life-Basel

Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote–eukaryote interface

(2020) Hiroyuki Imachi et al.   NATURE

Meet the relatives of our cellular ancestor

(2020) Christa Schleper et al.   NATURE

A hydrogen-dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism

(2020) Martina Preiner et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Cultured Asgard Archaea Shed Light on Eukaryogenesis

(2020) Purificación López-García et al.   CELL

A Step Toward Molecular Evolution of RNA: Ribose Binds to Prebiotic Fatty Acid Membranes, and Nucleosides Bind Better Than Individual Bases Do

(2020) Mengjun Xue et al.   CHEMBIOCHEM

TRAPPIST-1: Global results of the Spitzer exploration science program Red Worlds

(2020) E. Ducrot et al.   ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

How DNA and RNA subunits might have formed to make the first genetic alphabet

(2020) Kristian Le Vay et al.   NATURE

Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides

(2020) Jianfeng Xu et al.   NATURE

Organic Components of Small Bodies in the Outer Solar System: Some Results of the New Horizons Mission

(2020) Dale P. Cruikshank et al.   Life-Basel

Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus

(2020) Jane S. Greaves et al.   Nature Astronomy

The Molecular Determinants of Thermoadaptation: Methanococcales as a Case Study

(2020) Michel Lecocq et al.   MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

How the first life on Earth survived its biggest threat — water

(2020) Michael Marshall   NATURE

Critical review of chirality indicators of extraterrestrial life

(2020) David Avnir   NEW ASTRONOMY REVIEWS

The Origin of Biological Homochirality

(2019) Donna G. Blackmond   Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

The origin of the elements

(2019) Stan Woosley et al.   PHYSICS TODAY

The new physics needed to probe the origins of life

(2019) Sara Imari Walker   NATURE

A possible non-biological reaction framework for metabolic processes on early Earth

(2019) Robert Pascal   NATURE

Synthesis and breakdown of universal metabolic precursors promoted by iron

(2019) Kamila B. Muchowska et al.   NATURE

A synthetic genetic polymer with an uncharged backbone chemistry based on alkyl phosphonate nucleic acids

(2019) Sebastian Arangundy-Franklin et al.   Nature Chemistry

What makes a planet habitable?

(2019) Anat Shahar et al.   SCIENCE

Unified prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine and purine RNA ribonucleotides

(2019) Sidney Becker et al.   SCIENCE

RNA nucleosides built in one prebiotic pot

(2019) Nicholas V. Hud et al.   SCIENCE

Prebiotic condensation through wet–dry cycling regulated by deliquescence

(2019) Thomas D. Campbell et al.   Nature Communications

Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life

(2018) Edward W. Schwieterman et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Selenium versus sulfur: Reversibility of chemical reactions and resistance to permanent oxidation in proteins and nucleic acids

(2018) Michael J. Maroney et al.   FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

The power of many

(2018) Elizabeth Pennisi   SCIENCE

Organic molecules on Mars

(2018) Inge Loes ten Kate   SCIENCE

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

(2018) Jennifer L. Eigenbrode et al.   SCIENCE

Venus: The Atmosphere, Climate, Surface, Interior and Near-Space Environment of an Earth-Like Planet

(2018) Fredric W. Taylor et al.   SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS

Inward migration of the TRAPPIST-1 planets as inferred from their water-rich compositions

(2018) Cayman T. Unterborn et al.   Nature Astronomy

Was There an Early Habitability Window for Earth's Moon?

(2018) Dirk Schulze-Makuch et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Macromolecular organic compounds from the depths of Enceladus

(2018) Frank Postberg et al.   NATURE

The rocky road to biomolecules

(2018) John A. Baross   NATURE

Reassessing evidence of life in 3,700-million-year-old rocks of Greenland

(2018) Abigail C. Allwood et al.   NATURE

Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere

(2018) Bénédicte Ménez et al.   NATURE

Organic synthesis on Mars by electrochemical reduction of CO2

(2018) A. Steele et al.   Science Advances

Reverse gyrase is essential for microbial growth at 95 °C

(2017) Gina L. Lipscomb et al.   EXTREMOPHILES

Adaptations of archaeal and bacterial membranes to variations in temperature, pH and pressure

(2017) Melvin F. Siliakus et al.   EXTREMOPHILES

Exoplanet hunters rethink search for alien life

(2017) Alexandra Witze   NATURE

Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1

(2017) Michaël Gillon et al.   NATURE

Biomolecular condensates: organizers of cellular biochemistry

(2017) Salman F. Banani et al.   NATURE REVIEWS MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY

Nucleic acids: function and potential for abiogenesis

(2017) Falk Wachowius et al.   QUARTERLY REVIEWS OF BIOPHYSICS

Signs of life

(2017) Daniel Clery   SCIENCE

Cassini finds molecular hydrogen in the Enceladus plume: Evidence for hydrothermal processes

(2017) J. Hunter Waite et al.   SCIENCE

Perchlorates on Mars enhance the bacteriocidal effects of UV light

(2017) Jennifer Wadsworth et al.   Scientific Reports

The timetable of evolution

(2017) Andrew H. Knoll et al.   Science Advances

The language of exoplanet ranking metrics needs to change

(2017) Elizabeth Tasker et al.   Nature Astronomy

Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site

(2017) M. H. Hecht et al.   SCIENCE

Geophysical controls of chemical disequilibria in Europa

(2016) S. D. Vance et al.   GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS

Beyond prebiotic chemistry

(2016) Leroy Cronin et al.   SCIENCE

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor

(2016) Madeline C. Weiss et al.   Nature Microbiology

A Rare Glimpse of Paleoarchean Life: Geobiology of an Exceptionally Preserved Microbial Mat Facies from the 3.4 Ga Strelley Pool Formation, Western Australia

(2016) Jan-Peter Duda et al.   PLoS One

Polymerization of Building Blocks of Life on Europa and Other Icy Moons

(2015) Jun Kimura et al.   ASTROBIOLOGY

Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

(2015) Anja Spang et al.   NATURE

Common origins of RNA, protein and lipid precursors in a cyanosulfidic protometabolism

(2015) Bhavesh H. Patel et al.   Nature Chemistry

Chemical Analysis of a “Miller-Type” Complex Prebiotic Broth

(2015) Eva Wollrab et al.   ORIGINS OF LIFE AND EVOLUTION OF BIOSPHERES

Uncertainty of Prebiotic Scenarios: The Case of the Non-Enzymatic Reverse Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle

(2015) Dmitry Yu Zubarev et al.   Scientific Reports

Non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway-like reactions in a plausible Archean ocean

(2014) M. A. Keller et al.   Molecular Systems Biology

RNA made in its own mirror image

(2014) Sandip A. Shelke et al.   NATURE

The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early ocean and atmosphere

(2014) Timothy W. Lyons et al.   NATURE

A cross-chiral RNA polymerase ribozyme

(2014) Jonathan T. Sczepanski et al.   NATURE

The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets

(2014) S. Seager   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Energy at life's origin

(2014) W. F. Martin et al.   SCIENCE

Rare earth metals are essential for methanotrophic life in volcanic mudpots

(2013) Arjan Pol et al.   ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY

Statistical physics of self-replication

(2013) Jeremy L. England   JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS

Nucleobases bind to and stabilize aggregates of a prebiotic amphiphile, providing a viable mechanism for the emergence of protocells

(2013) R. A. Black et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

On the universal core of bioenergetics

(2012) Barbara Schoepp-Cothenet et al.   BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOENERGETICS

Evolution before genes

(2012) Vera Vasas et al.   Biology Direct

In Retrospect: The Origin of Life

(2012) Tony Hyman et al.   NATURE

The proteomic complexity and rise of the primordial ancestor of diversified life

(2011) Kyung Mo Kim et al.   BMC EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Early Evolution of Photosynthesis

(2010) R. E. Blankenship   PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Bioenergetics, the origins of complexity, and the ascent of man

(2010) D. C. Wallace   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

High molecular diversity of extraterrestrial organic matter in Murchison meteorite revealed 40 years after its fall

(2010) P. Schmitt-Kopplin et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus

(2010) F. Wolfe-Simon et al.   SCIENCE

Earth's Earliest Atmospheres

(2010) K. Zahnle et al.   Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

In vivorequirement of selenophosphate for selenoprotein synthesis in archaea

(2009) Tilmann Stock et al.   MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY

Enzymology of the Wood-Ljungdahl Pathway of Acetogenesis

(2008) Stephen W. Ragsdale   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

When did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve?

(2008) R. Buick   PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Problem Solved* (*sort of)

(2008) R. F. Service   SCIENCE

Molecular mechanisms driving Darwinian evolution

(2007) Werner Arber   MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTER MODELLING