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    If it moves, it's probably alive: Searching for life on other planets | Researchers at the Technical University in Berlin figured, instead of having a robot looking for microbes, it would be easier and cheaper to make microbes come to the robot. The only ingredient they were lacking: the right bait
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    If it moves, it’s probably alive: Searching for life on other planets | Researchers at the Technical University in Berlin figured, instead of having a robot looking for microbes, it would be easier and cheaper to make microbes come to the robot. The only ingredient they were lacking: the right bait


    If it moves, it’s probably alive: Searching for life on other planets | Researchers at the Technical University in Berlin figured, instead of having a robot looking for microbes, it would be easier and cheaper to make microbes come to the robot. The only ingredient they were lacking: the right bait

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/02/how-to-go-fishing-for-life-on-another-planet-or-moon/

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    1. Adeldor on

      > “The only ingredient they were lacking: the right bait”

      Yeah, that’s like the proverbial recipe for capybara soup:

      * Step 1: Catch a capybara
      * Step 2: …

      What would be the right bait when the prey is unknown?

    2. lunex on

      That’s the best image they could find to accompany this article? C’mon. I expect more from Ars.

    3. GrinningPariah on

      They’re being silly trying to bait alien life with amino acids or whatever. The real answer is obvious.

      Heat.

      It takes some patience, but the best universal bait is always going to be a bit of heat. It’s free energy. Life on earth clusters around it, even geothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean are fonts of life.

      If you provide an environment which is just a little friendlier to growth than the surrounding area, life will find it.

    4. Skyshrim on

      I love this idea. It’s basically just bringing some sterile food and seeing if anything grows in it.