Scientists searching for clues of extraterrestrial life may soon have a new way to examine one of biology’s most revealing chemical characteristics: living organisms’ preference for certain molecules over their nearly identical mirror images.
An international research team has developed an electrical sensor that can identify individual amino acid molecules and distinguish between their left- and right-handed forms.
The technology uses tiny gold electrodes and machine learning to recognize subtle differences in electrical signals produced as molecules pass through a gap smaller than a billionth of a meter.
The researchers also tested the system on material from the Murchison meteorite and soil collected in Chile’s Atacama Desert, demonstrating its power to examine the kinds of chemically complex samples prospective missions might encounter on Mars or other worlds.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, could provide a foundation for instruments intended to search for possible signs of life without relying on bulky optical equipment or complex chemical processing.
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