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Biosignatures Can be Made in the Lab. No Life Needed.

Astrobiologists continue to search for their ideal biosignatures. A chemical or collection of chemicals that would give a clear indication of life on an exoplanet. The problem is that natural processes can produce all the same chemicals that life can generate. Now, researchers have produced dimethyl sulfide in the lab, a chemical made by marine microbes. They used light and gases found in many planetary atmospheres. The search for biosignatures continues.

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