ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2024
Molecular assembly indices of mineral heteropolyanions: some abiotic molecules are as complex as large biomolecules.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Origins of life: the possible and the actual.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Assembly theory and its relationship with computational complexity.Npj complexity · 2025Article
- Experimentally measured assembly indices are required to determine the threshold for life.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Reply to 'Experimental measurement of assembly indices are required to determine the threshold for life'.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Understanding the Role of Layered Minerals in the Emergence and Preservation of Proto-Proteins and Detection of Traces of Early Life.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Article
- On the salient limitations of the methods of assembly theory and their classification of molecular biosignatures.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Molecular assembly indices, which measure the number of unique sequential steps theoretically required to construct a three-dimensional molecule from its constituent atomic bonds, have been proposed as potential biosignatures. A central hypothesis of assembly theory is that any molecule with an assembly index ≥15 found in significant local concentrations represents an unambiguous sign of life. We show that abiotic molecule-like heteropolyanions, which assemble in aqueous solution as precursors to some mineral crystals, range in molecular assembly indices from 2 for H
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