Microbiology & Virology

Planetary Microbiology: Microbes, Planets, And The Search For Life

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
Applied and Environmental Microbiology via PubMed
October 4, 2025
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Planetary Microbiology: Microbes, Planets, And The Search For Life
Using a microscope inside a research lab on Mars – Grok via Astrobiology.com

Life on Earth has been shaped by transformative microbial innovations and singularities that redefined planetary systems, from oxygenic photosynthesis to biological nitrogen fixation.

These unique events, occurring only once in life’s tractable history, laid the foundation for the complex ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles around us today.

The Planetary Microbiology collection in Applied and Environmental Microbiology explores how modern microbiological tools reveal the origins, early evolution, and planetary impacts of these microbial breakthroughs.

Spanning deep-time studies, extreme environments, and astrobiology, contributions in this issue link biosignatures and ancient microbes to the search for extraterrestrial life. By bridging molecular, ecological, and planetary scales, planetary microbiology illuminates life’s past while critically informing strategies for the environmental and exploration challenges of our future.

Planetary microbiology: microbes, planets, and the search for life, Applied and Environmental Microbiology via PubMed

Planetary microbiology: microbes, planets, and the search for life, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (open access)

Astrobiology

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) 🖖🏻