Biosignature stability in space enables their use for life detection on Mars.

Two rover missions to Mars aim to detect biomolecules as a sign of extinct or extant life with, among other instruments, Raman spectrometers. However, there are many unknowns about the stability of Raman-detectable biomolecules in the martian environment, clouding the interpretation of the results. To quantify Raman-detectable biomolecule stability, we exposed seven biomolecules for 469 days to a simulated martian environment outside the International Space Station.

Response of Methanogenic Archaea from Siberian Permafrost and Non-permafrost Environments to Simulated Mars-like Desiccation and the Presence of Perchlorate.

Numerous preflight investigations were necessary prior to the exposure experiment BIOMEX on the International Space Station to test the basic potential of selected microorganisms to resist or even to be active under Mars-like conditions. In this study, methanogenic archaea, which are anaerobic chemolithotrophic microorganisms whose lifestyle would allow metabolism under the conditions on early and recent Mars, were analyzed. Some strains from Siberian permafrost environments have shown a particular resistance.

Limits of Life and the Habitability of Mars: The ESA Space Experiment BIOMEX on the ISS.

BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment) is an ESA/Roscosmos space exposure experiment housed within the exposure facility EXPOSE-R2 outside the Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS). The design of the multiuser facility supports-among others-the BIOMEX investigations into the stability and level of degradation of space-exposed biosignatures such as pigments, secondary metabolites, and cell surfaces in contact with a terrestrial and Mars analog mineral environment. In parallel, analysis on the viability of the investigated organisms has provided relevant data for evaluation of the habitability of Mars, for the limits of life, and for the likelihood of an interplanetary transfer of life (theory of lithopanspermia).

Publisher Correction: Geochemical constraints on the Hadean environment from mineral fingerprints of prokaryotes.

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[Three years experience in the detection and follow-up of violence against the elderly in a tertiary hospital].

Objectives: The Hospital Clínico San Carlos Committee against violence established a protocol in 2012 in order to detect and follow-up violence against elderly persons. This article presents the experience after 3years of its introduction, as well as an analysis comparing the differences between those younger and older than 65years of age.

Material And Methods: All cases were collected during years 2013, 2014, and 2015, and were divided into two groups, A and B, according to age, younger or older than 65years.

Geochemical constraints on the Hadean environment from mineral fingerprints of prokaryotes.

The environmental conditions on the Earth before 4 billion years ago are highly uncertain, largely because of the lack of a substantial rock record from this period. During this time interval, known as the Hadean, the young planet transformed from an uninhabited world to the one capable of supporting, and inhabited by the first living cells. These cells formed in a fluid environment they could not at first control, with homeostatic mechanisms developing only later.

Confocal Raman microspectroscopy reveals a convergence of the chemical composition in methanogenic archaea from a Siberian permafrost-affected soil.

Methanogenic archaea are widespread anaerobic microorganisms responsible for the production of biogenic methane. Several new species of psychrotolerant methanogenic archaea were recently isolated from a permafrost-affected soil in the Lena Delta (Siberia, Russia), showing an exceptional resistance against desiccation, osmotic stress, low temperatures, starvation, UV and ionizing radiation when compared to methanogens from non-permafrost environments. To gain a deeper insight into the differences observed in their resistance, we described the chemical composition of methanogenic strains from permafrost and non-permafrost environments using confocal Raman microspectroscopy (CRM).

From cytoplasm to environment: the inorganic ingredients for the origin of life.

Early in its history, Earth's surface developed from an uninhabitable magma ocean to a place where life could emerge. The first organisms, lacking ion transporters, fixed the composition of their cradle environment in their intracellular fluid. Later, though life adapted and spread, it preserved some qualities of its initial environment within.