A new ecological biological signature could help discover life in very different environments

When searching for life in other worlds, scientists usually look for biomarkers, chemicals, or phenomena that indicate current or past life. Other planets do not necessarily have some signs of life like Earth. So how do scientists find life in systems unlike ours?

You can answer new studies. Scientists from the Santa Fe Institute have developed a new ecological biological signature that could help scientists find life in completely different environments.

New exploration takes the first stage of the possibility that stoichiometry, or chemical ratios, can be populated as a biological classification.

Professor Chris Kempes, lead author of the study, said, “Because living systems display very consistent proportions in their chemical composition, we can use it stoichiometry to help us find life.”

SFI Science Council Member and Shareholder Simon Levin explains, However, it is the proportions of the specific elements that we see Soil This is the result of certain conditions here, and a certain group of macromolecules such as proteins and ribosomes, which have stoichiometry. “

How can this basic ratio generalize beyond the life we ​​observe on our planet?

This problem is solved by constructing two law-like patterns, two laws of measurement interwoven in the basic ratio we observe on Earth.

The first is that in individual cells, chemical measurements vary with cell size. In bacteria, for example, as the cell increases in size, the protein concentration decreases, and RNA Improve concentration. Second, the abundance of cells in a given environment follows the publication of the law of rank. And the third, after integrating the first and second into the simple environmental model, is that the particle elemental abundance to the primary abundance of the environmental fluid is a function of the particle size.

While the first to create a chemical bio-signature, this is the third discovery of a new bio-signature for the environment.

Scientists noted, “If we think about biomarkers not only in terms of individual chemicals or particles, and instead consider the fluids in which the particles appear, we see that the chemical abundance of living systems is manifested in the mathematical ratio between particles and the environment. mathematical patterns may appear in the Pair system which is very different from Earth’s. “

Finally, the theoretical framework was designed for application in future planetary missions.

Heather Graham, Principal Research Representative at NASA’s Agnostic Biometric Signature Laboratory, He saidAnd “If we go to the world of oceans and look at particles in the context of their fluids, we can begin to wonder if these particles display a law of force that tells us that there is a desired process, such as life, that created it.”

“To take this practical step, however, we need technology to sort particles by size, which we don’t currently have for spaceflight. However, the theory is ready, and when the technology lands on Earth, we can send it to the sea ice beyond our solar system with the trail of “A promising new vitality within reach.”

Journal reference:

1. Christopher B. Kempes et al., Measurement of Common Chemical and Biochemical Elements for Applications of Astronomical Biology, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1007 / s11538-021-00877-5

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