Origins & Astrobiology

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A bright planetary-sample laboratory seen along its length, a sealed sample container caught half-way through the transfer port of a nitrogen glovebox, with an electron microscope column and a mass spectrometer standing at the benches beyond

What a Biosignature Has to Rule Out

A claim that something is alive is built almost entirely out of negatives. The strength of a biosignature is the strength of the abiotic explanations it has eliminated, not the strength of the signal itself.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 16 min read

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