2+ day, 10+ hour ago (149+ words) Georgia Tech and NASA used advanced chromatography and a new computational tool to compare organic compounds in meteorite and terrestrial rock samples. "Determining whether organic molecules in planetary samples originate from biological or nonbiological processes," the authors wrote in their article, "is central to the search for life beyond Earth. Yet, distinguishing these origins is challenging due to overlapping chemical signatures and limited access to pristine extraterrestrial materials." (1) "In contrast to traditional biomarker-based approaches," the authors wrote, "LifeTracer analyzes untargeted chemical signatures to infer molecular origin with high accuracy. It enables scalable, unbiased biosignature detection and offers a powerful tool for interpreting complex organic mixtures returned by current and future planetary missions" (1). Read More on Similar Topics: Laser Thermal Desorption and GC'GC for Harsh Environment and Planetary Mass Spectrometry Read More on Similar Topics published by our sister publication, Spectroscopy:…...