Network For Life Detection (NfoLD) Affiliate Publications May 2021

Several NfoLD members are co-authors on a new paper “Active microbial sulfate reduction in fluids of serpentinizing peridotites of the continental subsurface,” out now in Communications Earth and Environment. Authors on the paper include NfoLD affiliates Clemens Glombitza (lead author) and Kaitlin Rempfert, as well as Steering Committee members Matthew Schrenk, Alexis Templeton, and Tori Hoehler, and this work was part of a collaborative effort in the Rock-Powered Life NAI. 

NfoLD Steering Committee member Laurie Barge is the lead author on a recent paper in JGR Planets, “Effects of geochemical and environmental parameters on abiotic organic chemistry driven by iron hydroxide minerals“which shows that ‘abiotic organic distributions’ are varied and depend on geochemical conditions, and so it is not straightforward to identify biology from these distributions. 

NfoLD affiliate Kate Craft is the lead author on a new publication in APL Tech Digest, “Astrobiology at APL—On the path to discovery,” highlighting the astrobiology research, instrument, and mission developments underway at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. NfoLD Steering Committee member Shannon MacKenzie is also an author on this publication.

Two NfoLD members are authors on a recent publication in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology — NfoLD affiliate Christopher Kempes is the lead author, and Steering Committee member Heather Graham is a co-author on the manuscript “Generalized stoichiometry and biogeochemistry for astrobiological applications.“ 

NfoLD affiliates Cole Mathis, Geoffrey Cooper, and Lee Cronin, as well as SC member Heather Graham, are authors on a new paper in Nature Communications, entitled “Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry.“ This paper asserts that highly abundant complex molecules are universal biosignatures, based on the molecular assembly index demonstrated in this manuscript.