Between a Rock and a Living Place: Natural Selection of Elements and the Search for Life in the Universe
Whitepaper #210 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: exoplanets; laboratory studies; life and prebiotic organics
by Betül Kaçar, Ariel D. Anbar, Amanda K. Garcia, Lance C. Seefeldt, and Kurt O. Konhauser
Published onMar 18, 2021
Between a Rock and a Living Place: Natural Selection of Elements and the Search for Life in the Universe
The suite of life’s essential chemical elements on Earth constitutes only one possible evolutionary outcome. A greater understanding of factors governing the natural selection of elements in Earth’s past will create a predictive capacity for detecting and assessing life’s existence on worlds where alternate evolutionary paths may have been taken.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
