This week we have 31 new papers relevant to the origins of life. Enjoy!

Please note that inclusion of these papers reflects topic, not quality, and that evaluating scientific merit is out of scope for this newsletter.

AI-detection tools (e.g. Pangram) can also be useful when first assessing new publications.

Artificial Life

Temporal Retention of Information as a Biosignature
Kee et al. — preprint

Astrobiology

Retrieving the Red Edge on Earth-like Planets with Heterogeneous Clouds and Surfaces
Burr et al. — The Astrophysical Journal

Identifying Amino Acid Isomers with Mass Spectrometry on Icy Ocean Moons
Bönigk et al. — Astrobiology

Science from the In Situ Exploration of the Proxima Centauri System
Eubanks et al. — preprint

Can AI Detect Life? Lessons from Artificial Life
Gupta et al. — preprint

Stellar flare-driven evolution of primordial early exo-Earth atmospheres: Insights from a Young M Dwarf Flare model
Mamonova et al. — preprint

Planetary Exploration 3.0: A Roadmap for Software-Defined, Radically Adaptive Space Systems
Ono et al. — preprint

A Systematic Search for Trace Molecules in the Atmosphere of Exoplanet K2-18 b
Pica-Ciamarra et al. — preprint

Laser-based mass spectrometry for the detection of signatures of life within our Solar System
Riedo et al. — preprint

Diverse organic molecules on Mars revealed by the first SAM TMAH experiment
Williams et al. — Nature Communications

Toward Inferring the Surface Fluxes of Biosignature Gases on Rocky Exoplanets from Telescope Spectra
Wogan et al. — preprint

Astrochemistry

The Reaction between Atomic Carbon and Molecular Nitrogen as a Source of Cyanamide and Carbodiimide on Interstellar Ices
Hickson et al. — ACS Earth and Space Chemistry

Water D/H in 3I/ATLAS as a probe of formation conditions in another planetary system
Salazar Manzano et al. — Nature Astronomy

Astrophysics

Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections with HWO: A Science Case Concept
Loyd et al. — preprint

Characterizing Earth analogs may require a moderate or high-resolution spectrograph
Ruffio et al. — preprint

Biochemistry

Birth, Death, and Replication at Surfaces: Universal Laws of Autocatalytic Dynamics
Grebenkov — preprint

Information-to-energy trade-offs and the optimal alphabet of polymer replication
Hernández — preprint

Prebiotic Chemistry Insights for Dragonfly II: Thermodynamic Favorability of Nucleobases, Ribose, and Fatty Acids in Selk Crater on Titan
Madan et al. — preprint

Emergent Information Formation in Prebiotic Protocell Clusters: A Computational Mechanics Framework of $\epsilon$-Machines and Attractor Memory
Massoth — preprint

The borderlands of foldability: lessons from simplified proteins
Seya et al. — Trends in Chemistry

Identification of hot spring Obelisk-like RNA replicons and expanded diversity of the Obelisk superfamily
Urayama et al. — Nature Communications

Chemistry

Energy gradients as potential drivers of pre-cellular chemical organization
Tozzi — preprint

Geoscience

From manganese mineral evolution history to atmospheric oxygen reconstruction
Li et al. — National Science Review

Microbiology

Survival of NASA-cleanroom microbial isolates under simulated space and Martian conditions
Chander et al. — Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Physics

Stochastic–dissipative least-action framework for self-organizing biological systems, Part I: Variational rationale and Lyapunov-type behavior
Georgiev — BioSystems

Stochastic-Dissipative Least-Action framework for self-organizing biological systems, Part II: Empirical estimation, Average Action Efficiency, and applications to ATP synthase
Georgiev — BioSystems

From Physical Difference to Meaning: A Constructor-Theoretic Framework for Prebiotic Information in Casimir-Lifshitz-Coupled Protocell Clusters
Massoth — preprint

Dynamic breaking of mirror symmetry in spin-dependent electron transport through chiral media causes enantiomeric excesses
Paltiel et al. — Science Advances

From Big Bang to Biochemistry: Entropy-Oriented Mechanics and Information Force Fields as a Unifying Framework for the Origin of Carbon-Based Life
Truong et al. — preprint

Planetary Sciences

Non-equilibrium condensation of the first Solar System solids
Charnoz et al. — Nature

Identifying the topographic signature of early Martian oceans
Zaki et al. — Nature