ArticlePhilosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences2014
Habitable worlds with no signs of life.
Article in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive transcriptional remodeling ofNpj complexity · 2026Article
- Euhabitability: A New Term to Aid in the Search for Life in Addition to the Habitable Zone Framework.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Where the microbes aren't.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Could Life Have Started on Mars? Planetary Conditions That Assemble and Destroy Protocells.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Identification of far-red light acclimation in an endolithicFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- An Oxygen Delivery Polymer Enhances Seed Germination in a Martian-like Environment.Astrobiology · 2020Article
- Evaluating Biogenicity on the Geological Record With Synchrotron-Based Techniques.Frontiers in microbiology · 2019Review
- Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life.Astrobiology · 2018Review
- The UK Centre for Astrobiology: A Virtual Astrobiology Centre. Accomplishments and Lessons Learned, 2011-2016.Astrobiology · 2018Article
- A Statistical Approach to Illustrate the Challenge of Astrobiology for Public Outreach.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
- Pressurized Martian-Like Pure CO2 Atmosphere Supports Strong Growth of Cyanobacteria, and Causes Significant Changes in their Metabolism.Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life · 2016Article
- Characterizing exoplanets.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
'Most habitable worlds in the cosmos will have no remotely detectable signs of life' is proposed as a biological hypothesis to be tested in the study of exoplanets. Habitable planets could be discovered elsewhere in the Universe, yet there are many hypothetical scenarios whereby the search for life on them could yield negative results. Scenarios for habitable worlds with no remotely detectable signatures of life include: planets that are habitable, but have no biosphere (Uninhabited Habitable Worlds); planets with life, but lacking any detectable surface signatures of that life (laboratory examples are provided); and planets with life, where the concentrations of atmospheric gases produced or removed by biota are impossible to disentangle from abiotic processes because of the lack of detailed knowledge of planetary conditions (the 'problem of exoplanet thermodynamic uncertainty'). A rejection of the hypothesis would require that the origin of life usually occurs on habitable planets, that spectrally detectable pigments and/or metabolisms that produce unequivocal biosignature gases (e.g. oxygenic photosynthesis) usually evolve and that the organisms that harbour them usually achieve a sufficient biomass to produce biosignatures detectable to alien astronomers.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.