OoL digest — October 31th edition

In this week’s digest, we have papers published in both astrobiology and biochemistry – plus I’ve included a podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. In astrobiology, Dorn presents an interior model for water-rich rocky exoplanets, Green discusses best practices for communicating about life detection, Hu discusses observables to discriminate small H$_2$ atmospheres and massive ones on sub-Neptunes (with implications for habitability) using JWST, and Grefenstette discusses the different strategies for finding life in space. In biochemistry, Cowan discusses the origin of chirality from the viewpoint of the RNA world hypothesis, Sharma reviews prebiotic chemical reaction networks modelling tools, and Takeuchi discusses the balance between within- and among-collectives in population genetics models. Happy reading!

Astrobiology

Hidden water in magma ocean exoplanets – Dorn et al. – preprint

Call for a framework for reporting evidence for life beyond Earth – Green et al. – Nature

Unveiling shrouded oceans on temperate sub-Neptunes via transit signatures of solubility equilibria vs. gas thermochemistry – Hu et al. – preprint

What are the best strategies for finding life in space? Alien Crash Site #21 w/ Natalie Grefenstette – Santa Fe Institute – podcast


Biochemistry

Origin of Chirality in the Molecules of Life – Cowan et al. – preprint

Automated Exploration of Prebiotic Chemical Reaction Space: Progress and Perspectives – Sharma et al. – Life

A scaling law of multilevel evolution: how the balance between within- and among-collective evolution is determined – Takeuchi et al. – preprint