We give an overview of an interdisciplinary meeting held last year in Windsor to discuss the evidence for fine-tuning in living systems. Many of the papers presented there appear in this volume, so this serves as an introduction to them. We also briefly review a meeting held the previous year in Cambridge to assess the evidence for fine-tuning in physics and cosmology.

This paper proposes that pulsars can serve as beacons for the discovery of and communication with extraterrestrials. The motivation for the communication strategy proposed is discussed in detail, along with relevant astrophysical considerations. It is shown that millisecond pulsars have characteristics and a distribution in space that make it possible to envisage communication being targeted towards and away from habstars (as defined by Turnbull & Tarter) aligned with pulsars in a specified way. Lists of candidate habstars and their pulsar alignments are included for those wishing to conduct searches using the strategy described.

A three-dimensional general-circulation climate model is used to simulate climates of Earth-like planets with extreme axial tilts (i.e. ‘obliquities’). While no terrestrial-planet analogue exists in the solar system, planets with steeply inclined spin axes may be common around nearby stars. Here we report the results of 12 numerical experiments with Earth-like planets having different obliquities (from 0° to 85°), continental geographies, and levels of the important greenhouse gas, CO2. Our simulations show intense seasonality in surface temperatures for obliquities [ges ]54°, with temperatures reaching 80–100 °C over the largest middle- and high-latitude continents around the summer solstice. Net annual warming at high latitudes is countered by reduced insolation and colder temperatures in the tropics, which maintains the global annual mean temperature of our planets to within a few degrees of 14 °C. Under reduced insolation, seasonal snow covers some land areas near the equator; however no significant net annual accumulation of snow or ice occurs in any of our runs with obliquity exceeding the present value, in contrast to some previous studies. None of our simulated planets were warm enough to develop a runaway greenhouse or cold enough to freeze over completely; therefore, most real Earth-like planets should be hospitable to life at high obliquity.

A linear correlation analysis between the Mars Odyssey neutron fluxes and various surface parameters indicates that the annual maximum surface temperature is the most important factor controlling the soil water content in the surficial (upper few tens of centrimetres) layers of the Martian soil. This is likely to be associated with the higher enthalpy of hydration of minerals in comparison with the enthalpy of sublimation of ice, which is presumably almost absent in the surficial layer. While presently the maximum surface temperature occurs near 30° S because of perihelion in late southern spring, the season of perihelion periodically migrates by virtue of precession. Consequently, the maximum surface temperature as well as the driest place on Mars should move from one hemisphere to the other with a period of about 51 000 yr. A significant amount of surficial (adsorbed) water would then be exchanged between the hemispheres and between the soil and other reservoirs, especially the polar caps and the polar layered deposits, and is probably borne out by the stratigraphic structure of these deposits. It is suggested that the water migration driven by the orbital eccentricity and precession may be as important as the obliquity-driven exchange of water, particularly very close to the surface, where ground ice is unstable.

The zones of liquid water stability oscillate somewhat in a north–south direction in the course of the precession cycle, but are most prevalent in parts of the low and mid northern latitudes as well as in the Hellas Basin. The thermal stability of liquid water tends to be high where the near-surface soil water content is low, indicating that the periodic melting of ground ice by solar heating is not a likely source of liquid water on the surface, but some episodic processes should provide water, if any.

An enhanced soil water content near the surface is always accompanied with a reduced peak ultraviolet flux, both reducing the chemical reactivity of the soil. In the present epoch the northern hemisphere may represent astrobiologically more clement environmental conditions.

There is a set of molecules common to all forms of life on Earth that are often described as ‘the molecules of life’. This should not be taken to imply that life can only be made from just these components, or that life on Earth always was. These molecules are parts of a machine, the essential design of which is also common to all life on Earth, but which is so complex and well organized that it looks like a product of evolution through natural selection, an evolution that was effectively frozen at some stage before a ‘last common ancestor’. There are hints in the structure of our biochemical pathways as to which of the present components of this machine came first, and intimations of an earlier altogether different genetic system in our ancestry.

54 strains of viable green algae and 26 strains of viable cyanobacteria were recovered from 128 and 56 samples collected from Siberian and Antarctic permafrost, respectively, with ages from modern to a few million years old. Although species of unicellular green algae belonged to Chlorococcales were subdominant inside permafrost, green algae Pedinomonas sp. were observed in Antarctic permafrost. Filamentous cyanobacteria of Oscillatoriales, Nostocales were just found in Siberian permafrost. Algal biomass in the permanently frozen sediments, expressed as concentration of chlorophyll a, was 0.06–0.46 μg g−1. The number of viable algal cells varied between <102 and 9×103 cfu g−1, but the number of viable bacterial cells was usually higher from 102 to 9.2×105 cfu g−1. Frozen but viable permafrost algae have preserved their morphological characteristics and photosynthetic apparatus in the dark permafrost. In the laboratory, they restored their photosynthetic activity, growth and development in favourable conditions at positive temperatures and with the availability of water and light. The discovery of ancient viable algae within permafrost reflects their ability to tolerate long-term freezing. In this study, the tolerance of algae and cyanobacteria to freezing, thawing and freezing–drying stresses was evaluated by short-term (days to months) low-temperature experiments. Results indicate that viable permafrost microorganisms demonstrate resistance to such stresses. Apart from their ecological importance, the bacterial and algal species found in permafrost have become the focus for novel biotechnology, as well as being considered proxies for possible life forms on cryogenic extraterrestrial bodies.

A spectroscopy and isotope study has been performed on igneous sediments from Lake Hoare, a nearly isolated ecosystem in the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. The mineralogy and chemistry of these sediments were studied in order to gain insights into the biogeochemical processes occurring in a permanently ice-covered lake and to assist in characterizing potential habitats for life in paleolakes on Mars. Obtaining visible/near-infrared, mid-infrared and Raman spectra of such sediments provides the ground truth needed for using reflectance, emittance and Raman spectroscopy for exploration of geology, and perhaps biology, on Mars. Samples measured in this study include a sediment from the ice surface, lake bottom sediment cores from oxic and anoxic zones of the lake and the magnetic fractions of two samples.

These sediments are dominated by quartz, pyroxene, plagioclase and K-feldspar, but also contain calcite, organics, clays, sulphides and iron oxides/hydroxides that resulted from chemical and biological alteration processes. Chlorophyll-like bands are observed in the spectra of the sediment-mat layers on the surface of the lake bottom, especially in the deep anoxic region. Layers of high calcite concentration in the oxic sediments and layers of high pyrite concentration in the anoxic sediments are indicators of periods of active biogeochemical processing in the lake. Micro-Raman spectra revealed the presence of ~5 μm-sized pyrite deposits on the surface of quartz grains in the anoxic sediments. C, N and S isotope trends are compared with the chemistry and spectral properties. The δ13C and δ15N trends highlight the differences in the balance of microbial processes in the anoxic sediments versus the oxic sediments. The biogenic pyrite found in the sediments from the anoxic zone is associated with depleted δ34S values, high organic C levels and chlorophyll spectral bands and could be used as a potential biomarker mineral for paleolakes on Mars.

The issue of the variation of the surface ultraviolet (UV) environment on Mars was investigated with particular emphasis being placed on the interpretation of data in a biological context. A UV model has been developed to yield the surface UV irradiance at any time and place over the Martian year. Seasonal and diurnal variations were calculated and dose rates evaluated. Biological interpretation of UV doses is performed through the calculation of DNA damage effects upon phage T7 and Uracil, used as examples for biological dosimeters. A solar UV ‘hotspot’ was revealed towards perihelion in the southern hemisphere, with a significant damaging effect upon these species. Diurnal profiles of UV irradiance are also seen to vary markedly between aphelion and perihelion. The effect of UV dose is also discussed in terms of the chemical environment of the Martian regolith, since UV irradiance can reach high enough levels so as to have a significant effect upon the soil chemistry. We show, by assuming that H2O is the main source of hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere, that the stoichiometrically desirable ratio of 2:1 for atmospheric H and O loss rates to space are not maintained and at present the ratio is about 20:1. A large planetary oxygen surface sink is therefore necessary, in contrast with escape to space. This surface oxygen sink has important implications for the oxidation potential and the toxicology of the Martian soil. UV-induced adsorption of {\rm O}_{2}^{-} super-radicals plays an important role in the oxidative environment of the Martian surface, and the biologically damaging areas found in this study are also shown to be regions of high subsurface oxidation. Furthermore, we briefly cover the astrobiological implications for landing sites that are planned for future Mars missions.

In a previous paper, we showed that Earth-type habitable planets around 47 UMa are in principle possible if a distinct set of conditions is warranted. These conditions include that the Earth-type planets have successfully formed and are orbitally stable and, in addition, that the 47 UMa star–planet system is relatively young ([lsim ]6 Gyr). We now extend this study by considering Earth-like planets with different land/ocean coverages. This study is again based on the so-called integrated system approach, which describes the photosynthetic biomass production taking into account a variety of climatological, biogeochemical and geodynamical processes. This approach implies a special characterization of the habitable zone defined for a distinct type of planet. We show that the likelihood of finding a habitable Earth-like planet on a stable orbit around 47 UMa critically depends on the percentage of the planetary land/ocean coverage. The likelihood is significantly increased for planets with a very high percentage of ocean surface (‘water worlds’).

A stellar evolution computer model has been used to determine changes in the luminosity L and effective temperature Te of single stars during their time on the main sequence. The range of stellar masses investigated was from 0.5 to 1.5 times that of the Sun, each with a mass fraction of metals (metallicity, Z) from 0.008 to 0.05. The extent of each star's habitable zone (HZ) has been determined from its values of L and Te. These stars form a reference framework for other main sequence stars. All of the 104 main sequence stars known to have one or more giant planets have been matched to their nearest stellar counterpart in the framework, in terms of mass and metallicity, hence closely approximating their HZ limits. The limits of HZ, for each of these stars, have been compared to their giant planet(s)'s range of strong gravitational influence. This allows a quick assessment as to whether Earth-mass planets could exist in stable orbits within the HZ of such systems, both presently and at any time during the star's main sequence lifetime. A determination can also be made as to the possible existence of life-bearing satellites of giant planets, which orbit within HZs. Results show that about half of the 104 known extrasolar planetary systems could possibly have been housing an Earth-mass planet in HZs during at least the past billion years, and about three-quarters of the 104 could do so for at least a billion years at some time during their main sequence lives. Whether such Earth-mass planets could have formed is an urgent question now being investigated by others, with encouraging results.

If the discoveries of C60 and C70 fullerenes in terrestrial hard rocks are real, then some of these may have formed in the solid state by dehydrogenation-driven ‘zip-up’ of C60Hn and C70Hm progenitors. At three sites of such fullerene discoveries the building blocks for these large molecules may have come from algal remains.

Evolution, broadly construed, has become a powerful unifying concept in much of science – not only in the biological evolution of plants and animals, but also in the physical evolution of stars and planets, and the cultural evolution of society and its many varied products. This paper (1) explores the bulk structure and functioning of open, non-equilibrium, thermodynamic systems relevant to the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology, (2) places the astrobiological landscape into an even larger, cosmological context, (3) defines life, complexity and evolution writ large, (4) claims that life depends ultimately on the expansion of the Universe and the flow of energy derived therefrom and (5) proposes a quantitative metric to characterize the rise of complexity throughout all of natural history. That metric is neither information nor negentropy, for these inveterate yet qualitative terms cannot be quantified, nor even defined, to everyone's satisfaction in today's scientific community. Rather, the newly proposed metric is normalized energy flow, a revision of a long-cherished term – energy – that is physically intuitive, well defined and readily measurable. All ordered systems – from rocky planets and shining stars, to buzzing bees and redwood trees – can be best judged empirically and uniformly by gauging the amount of energy acquired, stored and expressed by those systems. Appeals to anthropism are unnecessary to appreciate the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary narrative, including a technological civilization that now embraces an energetics agenda designed to better understand, and perhaps to unify, all the natural sciences.

A new method is proposed to search for extraterrestrial life adapted to cold environments far from the Sun. To keep warm, using the light from a distant sun, any life-form must grow a system of optical concentrators, lenses or mirrors, to focus sunlight on to its vital parts. Any light not absorbed, or any heat radiation emitted from the vital parts, will be focused by the optical concentrators into a narrow beam pointing back towards the sun. To search for such life-forms, we should scan the sky with optical and infrared telescopes pointing directly away from the Sun. Any living vegetation will be seen as a bright patch in strong contrast to its dark surroundings, like the eyes of a nocturnal animal caught in the headlights of a car. This method of search may be used either with space-based or with ground-based telescopes. Examples of places where the method would work well are the surfaces of Europa, Trojan asteroids or Kuiper Belt objects. Any life-form that adapted successfully to a vacuum environment would be likely to spread widely over objects with icy surfaces in the outer regions of the solar system.

Astrobiology is an extremely wide-ranging field and thus is in special need of conceptual and theoretical frameworks that can integrate its various arenas of study. In this paper I review recent work associated with a conceptual framework known as ‘ecological stoichiometry’ and even more recent extensions in the development of ‘biological stoichiometry’. Ecological stoichiometry is the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in ecological interactions and has developed rapidly in the study of nutrient cycling and energy flow in aquatic food webs. It identifies the elemental composition of interacting biota as central in understanding the nature of their interactions and dynamics, including key feedbacks via nutrient recycling. Biological stoichiometry extends this mode of thinking to all types of biological systems. It especially seeks to better understand, at the biochemical and genetic levels, the factors influencing the elemental composition of living things and the evolutionary forces that drive and constrain that elemental composition. By connecting key concepts of ecosystem ecology, evolutionary biology and biochemistry, stoichiometric theory integrates biological information into a more coherent whole that holds considerable promise for application in astrobiology. Several examples of potential astrobiological applications of stoichiometric analysis are offered, including ones related to pre-biotic evolution, the Cambrian explosion, biosignatures and biological feedbacks on planetary carbon cycling.

In the early 1930s, Alfonso L. Herrera proposed his so-called sulfocyanic theory on the origin of life, an autotrophic proposal on the first living beings according to which NH4SCN and H2CO acted as raw materials for the synthesis of bio-organic compounds inside primordial photosynthetic protoplasmic structures. Although the work of Herrera is frequently cited in historical analysis of the development of the origin of life studies, very little attention has been given to the chemical significance of the reactions he published. In this paper we report the results of our search for amino acids obtained from a reactive mixture used by Herrera from 1933 onwards. Chromatograms using the high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique suggest the presence of several amino acids, the total yield being 2% of the initial thiocyanate used. Preliminary identification based on HPLC retention times suggests the presence of glycine, alanine, cysteine and methionine. Alanine was the most abundant amino acid in all samples of fractionated material analysed. Although the starting materials used by Herrera were determined by his autotrophic hypothesis on the origin of cells, our results show that his experiments may provide insights into the abiotic synthesis of sulfur-containing amino acids within the framework of a heterotrophic emergence of life.

The Fourier-transform infrared spectra and the electronic spectra of a series of petroleum fractions of different composition and origins have been studied. Furthermore, these fractions have been modified through the Scholl reaction, a reaction that causes an increase in the aromatic content of the fractions by causing the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or larger PAHs if they were already present in the pristine samples. It is shown that some heavily aromatic petroleum fractions are able to match the emission spectra of the protoplanetary nebula IRAS 22272+5435. Additionally, it is shown that the modified petroleum fractions are able to match the infrared spectrum of anthracite, a high-rank type of coal that has been proposed as the material responsible for the emission of the unidentified infrared bands (UIBs), but which can also be thought of as a model of the kerogen found in meteorites or assumed to be present in cometary nuclei. It is shown that the petroleum fractions considered in this work can be considered even better candidates than coal as a model for the matter present in protoplanetary nebulae and the carrier of the UIBs.

A major objective in solar system exploration is the insertion of appropriate biology-oriented experiments in future missions. We discuss various reasons for suggesting that this type of research be considered a high priority for feasibility studies and, subsequently, for technological development of appropriate melters and submersibles. Based on numerous examples, we argue in favour of the assumption that Darwin's theory is valid for the evolution of life anywhere in the universe. We have suggested how to obtain preliminary insights into the question of the distribution of life in the universe. Universal evolution of intelligent behaviour is at the end of an evolutionary pathway, in which evolution of ion channels in the membrane of microorganisms occurs in its early stages. Further, we have argued that a preliminary test of this conjecture is feasible with experiments on the Europan surface or ocean, involving evolutionary biosignatures (ion channels). This aspect of the exploration for life in the solar system should be viewed as a complement to the astronomical approach for the search of evidence of the later stages of the evolutionary pathways towards intelligent behaviour.

This work is a modern revisitation of an old idea of great chemists of the past such as Berthelot, Mendeleev, Cloez and Moissan: the formation of organic matter under pre-biotic conditions starting from the hydrolysis of metal carbides. This idea was originally proposed for the formation of petroleum in the Earth and was extended to other bodies of the solar system by Sokolov at the end of the 19th century. The reason for this revisitation lies in the fact that complex organic matter resembling a petroleum fraction may exist in certain protoplanetary nebulae. The present work starts with a survey of the theory of the inorganic origin of petroleum and reports on current evidence for its derivation from residues of formerly living matter, but also considers theories that admit both a biogenic and an abiogenic origin for petroleum. By considering the cosmic abundance of elements and the evidence concerning the presence of carbides in meteorites, we discuss the formation, structure and hydrolysis products derived from the metal carbides of the iron peak of cosmic elemental abundance. Chromium carbide (Cr3C2) has then been used as a model compound for all the key carbides of the iron peak of the cosmic abundance (Cr, Fe, Ni, V, Mn, Co) and it has been hydrolysed under different conditions and the hydrocarbons formed have been analysed using electronic spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) and by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Methane, a series of about 20 different alkenes with single and conjugated double bonds have been detected. Paraffins are formed simultaneously with the alkene series but no acetylenic hydrocarbons have been detected. This study confirms early works considering the easy hydrolysis of the carbides of Cr, Fe, Ni, Mn and Co with the formation of H2, a series of alkanes including methane and a series of alkenes including ethylene. The peculiar behaviour of copper carbide (copper is inside the iron peak of the cosmic abundances) has been discussed as well. A survey of the hydrolytic behaviour of other carbides has been included so that all lanthanides and actinides are considered as well as carbides of the second and third groups of the periodic table of elements and highly refractory carbides such as those of Ti, Zr, Ta and W have been briefly discussed. Furthermore, the hydrolysis of mixed metal carbides and nitrides is discussed, which gives a mixture of extremely interesting molecules that are considered the raw materials for the formation of the molecules of life: guanidine, methyl hydrazine, formic acid, hydrogen cyanide, urea, cyanamide, methylamine and formaldehyde. The hydrolysis of metal carbides has also been discussed within the framework of other reactions that are well considered in the present day in an astrochemical context: the ion–molecule reaction, the Miller–Urey and the Sagan–Kaare synthesis as well as the catalytic Fischer–Tropsch synthesis and the radiation-driven Fischer–Tropsch synthesis.

The discovery of high concentrations of water-ice just below the Martian surface polar areas made by Mars Odyssey has strengthened the debate about the search for life on Mars. Generally it is believed that life on Earth emerged in liquid water from the processing of organic molecules. Thus, the possible origin of life on early Mars should have been related to the evolution of the planetary water inventory, consequently it is important to know the amount of water-ice stored below the planetary surface. The search and mapping of the present subsurface water and ice reservoirs will be carried out experimentally by Mars Express with its Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) ground-penetrating radar in the near future. We estimate the present and past water-ice reservoirs, which are and were in exchange with the atmosphere by using the observed D/H ratio in the atmospheric water vapour, measured D/H ratios in Martian SNC meteorites and D/H isotope ratios based on a study by Lunine et al. (2003) regarding asteroid and cometary water delivery to early Mars. Using the results of this study with initial D/H ratios of about 1.2–1.6 times the terrestrial sea water (TSW) ratio and the assumption that these ratios were not fractionated by XUV-driven hydrodynamic escape due to a more active young Sun prior to 3.5 Ga, one finds a present water-ice reservoir, which can exchange with the Martian atmosphere, equivalent to a global ocean layer with a thickness of about 3.3–15 m. By assuming that hydrodynamic escape fractionated the D/H ratio to a value that is stored in the old Martian SNC meteorites with a measured average enrichment of about 2.3 times the TSW ratio we estimate a present water-ice reservoir equivalent to a global layer with a thickness of about 11–27 m. From the obtained range of the estimated present water-ice deposit, we estimate a water-ice reservoir exchangeable with the atmosphere on Mars 3.5 Ga equivalent to a global ocean with a thickness of between 17 and 61 m. All the estimated reservoirs depend on the escape of water from Mars since 3.5 Ga equivalent to a global ocean with a thickness of about 14 m (minimum) to 34 m (maximum). The main uncertainties in the estimate of the minimal and maximal water-ice reservoir is related to the present uncertainties in the efficiency of atmospheric escape rates triggered by plasma instabilities and momentum transfer effects between the solar wind and the ionosphere. However, these uncertainties will be reduced in the near future, since both loss processes will be studied in detail by the Automatic Space Plasma Experiment with a Rotating Analyzer (ASPERA-3) on-board Mars Express. The obtained results combined with the discovery of the present water-ice subsurface reservoirs by the MARSIS radar and isotope studies as presented in this work, will also give us an idea of how enriched the atmosphere was in D compared with H after the heavy bombardment corresponding to a better understanding of the efficiency of the hydrodynamic escape process due to the young Sun.

For more than four decades, a small group of researchers has sought to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence in situ, by detecting microwave signals that would betray its existence. Despite the failure to find these signals so far, there is continued and even accelerated effort to press the search. Recent advances include greater emphasis on experiments at optical wavelengths, and the construction of a new radio telescope that is deliberately designed for such reconnaissance. In addition to these instrumental improvements, several strategies have been proposed that might better the chances of ‘looking in the right place, at the right time’. This review of the current state of SETI research concludes with a speculative look at the nature of the sought-for extraterrestrials, and when it is likely we might find them.