A way to search for signs of life in lava tubes
Fionna Samuels · C&EN Global Enterprise · 2024
As her flashlight cut through the blackness deep in one of the lava tubes at Lava Beds National Monument, Dina Bower saw a streak of blue across the wall. She first thought it was graffiti, but spectroscopic analysis revealed that there was no human vandal. This color, and a rainbow of others, suggested that microbial life might be flourishing in the isolated, light-deprived regions of the caves. The same phenomenon may also appear as a biosignature of life on other planets. In a talk last week at the ACS Spring 2024 Meeting, Bower, a biogeochemist at the University of Maryland, described how her team is studying secondary minerals—those formed as byproducts of weathering or microbial activity —deposited in lava tubes as possible signatures of life. “This research fits broadly into NASA’s emphasis on finding reliable biosignatures to guide the search for life,” said Jennifer Macalady, a geoscientist from Pennsylvania State