![Representation of the functional cycle (Funktionskreis) capturing the structural coherence between the living system and the assimilated environment, showing the analog coding processes operating in perception of external signals and in signal transduction, and the digital coding processes operating in the system's self-maintenance and reproduction. -- [BioSystems]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Codepoietic.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
[BioSystems]. Evolution is an intrinsic property of autopoietic systems performing natural computation, which is based on an internal formal self-description representing the arrangement of digital and analog coding structures.
Keith Cowing
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
![Schematic illustration of the non-spatial Hash Chemistry model (from [16], with modification). - -[q-bio.PE]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hash-Chemistry.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Hash Chemistry: Minimal Models for Evolutionary Growth of Complexity
[q-bio.PE] Hash Chemistry is a family of minimalistic evolutionary models in which a deterministic hash function assigns a scalar score to entities of arbitrary size, opening a combinatorially vast possibility […]
Posted inSPACELINE Current Awareness List
NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,210 31 July 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)
The abstract in PubMed or at the publisher’s site is linked when available and will open in a new window.
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine
Molecular Evidence For A Relict Marine Community In An Antarctic Dry Valleys Subglacial Brine-fed System
[Nature] The McMurdo Dry Valleys contain a mosaic of specialized microbial habitats structured by strong physical and chemical gradients.
![Pollux optical layout. The exact sequence in the optical path of the retractable polarimeters and fiber link connections of the OPT and NIR is still to be discussed and what shown here is not representative of the final configuration. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Pollux.png?resize=1200%2C715&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Pollux: High-resolution Precision Spectroscopy And Polarimetry For The Habitable Worlds Observatory
[astro-ph.IM] Pollux is a high-resolution spectrograph and spectropolarimeter (R from 65000 to 100000) covering a spectral range from 100 nm to 1750 nm, proposed by a European consortium to equip […]
Posted inComets and Asteroids
A JWST Study of Stardust. I. Infrared Spectroscopy of Comet 81P/Wild 2 and Overall Composition
[astro-ph.EP] We report observations of comet 81P/Wild 2, target of the Stardust sample return mission, on UT 2023 March 20 and 24 at a heliocentric distance (rH) of 1.85 au […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Life Speaks One Universal Language To Activate Genes. It Speaks Many More To Silence Them
[Centre for Genomic Regulation] The signals that cells use to switch genes on have remained almost unchanged across two billion years of evolution, but the ones used to switch genes […]
![Left: Orbital separations of inspiralling planets over time. Right: Mass accreted onto planets over time. For each initial planet mass, we show results for 𝜀 ∈ [0.01, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0], with an increasing efficiency denoted by an increasing opacity. We also allow the accretion to increase up to 10× the Eddington limit, denoted by the dotted lines. Accretion stops when 𝑅𝐵 < 𝑅Jup (see §2.3). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Atmospheric-Signatures.png?resize=1200%2C722&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Atmospheric Signatures of Common Envelope Evolution in White Dwarf Planets
[astro-ph.EP] The majority of confirmed exoplanets orbit within 1 au of a main-sequence (MS) star. When their stellar hosts evolve off the MS, many of these planets will be engulfed […]
Posted inMars
A Consolidated Mössbauer Spectrum For Undisturbed Soils From Gusev Crater, Mars
[Springer Nature] Mössbauer analyses from MIMOS II data collected on Mars provided breakthrough insights into iron mineralogy of the planet’s surface. [Life] Resulting from limited measurement time, science operations were […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Causal Architecture Dynamics Prior to Arrival of Self-replicators in a Model of Catalytic Networks Relevant to Origin-of-Life
[q-bio.PE] Agents that exert causal power in the world are thought to be the product of selection among diverse replicators; what is the causal structure of a medium before replicators […]