Scientists at Osaka University in Japan tested the new approach on samples of the Murchison meteorite, found in Australia, and on soil samples from the Chilean part of the Atacama Desert. According to the university professor Masateru Taniguchi, in both cases the method showed accuracy comparable to already existing ways of analyzing the composition and structure of amino acids.
The development is designed to search in samples from other planets for “twisted” amino acid molecules that may indicate traces of life or its Earth-like analogs.
The scientists note that the proteins of living organisms on Earth consist only of amino acids with a left-handed “twist”, whereas sugars have a right-handed one.
To distinguish such molecules, Japanese chemists combined a previously created tunneling method through nanogaps with artificial intelligence. The work used gold nanoelectrodes, between which the molecules under study are passed through the gap.
Osaka University associate professor Takahito Oshiro said that the approach makes it possible with an 80% probability to correctly distinguish amino acids with left- and right-handed “twists”. According to him, this is the first time such information has been obtained for individual molecules, and the main advantage of the technology is that it can theoretically be placed in a small device aboard a Mars rover or spacecraft.
In the future, the researchers concluded, this same method could be used to analyze dust particles and samples from asteroids and comets, which interplanetary stations will approach in the coming years and decades.
