Molecular complexity index could help find proof of alien life
Is it microbes on Venus or just lifeless planetary processes? Discovery could help scientists identify life on other planets
The complexity of molecules can determine unambiguously whether they were made by living organisms or not, say researchers – a discovery that could have profound implications for the search for alien life.
The team led by Lee Cronin of the University of Glasgow, UK, has devised a measure of molecular complexity called the molecular assembly index (MA), and used it to study a variety of samples, including one from a meteorite that fell to Earth in the 1960s.