Lee Cronin

you could just look for things in the gas phase, or you go on the surface, drill down, because you want to find molecules that are... You've either got to find the source living system, because the problem with just looking for complexity is it gets burnt away.

So in a harsh environment on, say, on the surface of Mars, there's a very low probability that you're going to find really complex molecules because of all the radiation and so on. If you drill down a little bit, you could drill down a bit into soil that's billions of years old.

So in a harsh environment on, say, on the surface of Mars, there's a very low probability that you're going to find really complex molecules because of all the radiation and so on. If you drill down a little bit, you could drill down a bit into soil that's billions of years old.

So in a harsh environment on, say, on the surface of Mars, there's a very low probability that you're going to find really complex molecules because of all the radiation and so on. If you drill down a little bit, you could drill down a bit into soil that's billions of years old.

Then I would put in some solvent, water, alcohol or something, or take a scoop, make it volatile, put it into the mass spectrometer and just try and detect high complexity, high abundant molecules. And if you get them, hey presto, you can have evidence of life. Wouldn't that then be great if you could say, okay, we've found evidence of life.

Then I would put in some solvent, water, alcohol or something, or take a scoop, make it volatile, put it into the mass spectrometer and just try and detect high complexity, high abundant molecules. And if you get them, hey presto, you can have evidence of life. Wouldn't that then be great if you could say, okay, we've found evidence of life.

Then I would put in some solvent, water, alcohol or something, or take a scoop, make it volatile, put it into the mass spectrometer and just try and detect high complexity, high abundant molecules. And if you get them, hey presto, you can have evidence of life. Wouldn't that then be great if you could say, okay, we've found evidence of life.

Now we want to keep the life meter, keep searching for more and more complexity until you actually find living cells. You can get those new living cells and then you could bring them back to Earth or you could try and sequence them. You could see that they have different DNA and proteins. Go along the gradient of the light.

Now we want to keep the life meter, keep searching for more and more complexity until you actually find living cells. You can get those new living cells and then you could bring them back to Earth or you could try and sequence them. You could see that they have different DNA and proteins. Go along the gradient of the light.

Now we want to keep the life meter, keep searching for more and more complexity until you actually find living cells. You can get those new living cells and then you could bring them back to Earth or you could try and sequence them. You could see that they have different DNA and proteins. Go along the gradient of the light.

So I would take a life, so my life meter, our life meter, there you go. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Would have both infrared and mass spec. So it would have two ports so it could shine a light. And so what it would do is you would have a vacuum chamber and you would have an electrostatic analyzer and you'd have a monochromator to producing infrared and

So I would take a life, so my life meter, our life meter, there you go. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Would have both infrared and mass spec. So it would have two ports so it could shine a light. And so what it would do is you would have a vacuum chamber and you would have an electrostatic analyzer and you'd have a monochromator to producing infrared and

So I would take a life, so my life meter, our life meter, there you go. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Would have both infrared and mass spec. So it would have two ports so it could shine a light. And so what it would do is you would have a vacuum chamber and you would have an electrostatic analyzer and you'd have a monochromator to producing infrared and

So you'd take a scoop of the sample, put it in the life meter. It would then add a solvent or heat up the sample, so some volatiles come off. The volatiles would then be put into the mass spectrometer, into electrostatic trap, and you'd weigh the molecules and fragment them. Alternatively, you'd shine infrared light on them. You'd count the number of bands.

So you'd take a scoop of the sample, put it in the life meter. It would then add a solvent or heat up the sample, so some volatiles come off. The volatiles would then be put into the mass spectrometer, into electrostatic trap, and you'd weigh the molecules and fragment them. Alternatively, you'd shine infrared light on them. You'd count the number of bands.

So you'd take a scoop of the sample, put it in the life meter. It would then add a solvent or heat up the sample, so some volatiles come off. The volatiles would then be put into the mass spectrometer, into electrostatic trap, and you'd weigh the molecules and fragment them. Alternatively, you'd shine infrared light on them. You'd count the number of bands.

But you'd have to, in that case, do some separation because you want to separate. And so in mass spec, it's really nice and convenient because you can separate electrostatically. But you need to have that. Can you do it in real time? Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much, yeah. So let's go all the way back. Okay, we're really going to get this. Let's go. Lex and Lee. No, no, Lex and Lee.

But you'd have to, in that case, do some separation because you want to separate. And so in mass spec, it's really nice and convenient because you can separate electrostatically. But you need to have that. Can you do it in real time? Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much, yeah. So let's go all the way back. Okay, we're really going to get this. Let's go. Lex and Lee. No, no, Lex and Lee.

But you'd have to, in that case, do some separation because you want to separate. And so in mass spec, it's really nice and convenient because you can separate electrostatically. But you need to have that. Can you do it in real time? Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much, yeah. So let's go all the way back. Okay, we're really going to get this. Let's go. Lex and Lee. No, no, Lex and Lee.

All right. So you have a vacuum chamber. You have a little nose. The nose would have a packing material. So you would take your sample, add it onto the nose, add a solvent or a gas. It would then be sucked up the nose. And that would be separated using what we call chromatography. And then as each band comes off the nose, we would then do mass spec and infrared.