![Biopolymer Solvent scoring. (A) Relationship between the fraction of the biopolymer compatible range and the liquid range of solvents and the average fractional efficiency for conversion of folding free energy to sequence information, for 54 solvents at 1 atm. Large black circle: water. Green circles: hydrocarbons. Magenta circles: small substances from C, H, O, N and S. Grey circles: other solvents in Table 1. Black line: range for water calculated from the uncertainty in the dynamic transition temperature presented in Figure 3 (values range from 180 to 230K). The grey lines indicate constant values of the BSscore (Equation [9]). (B) Ranking of the solvents according to the BSscore. -- astro-ph.EP](https://astrobiology.newspackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/solvent.png)
SETI Institute: “So many scientists at the SETI Institute and around the world, were inspired to follow their careers because of Frank Drake. Frank not only left his mark on the fields of Astronomy, Astrophysics and SETI, but he left his mark on all of humankind. He dared to pursue one of the most profound, compelling and inspiring questions in all of science and indeed, all of philosophy. NASA’s third science question: ‘Are We Alone?’ might well have been something else were it not for Frank’s pioneering.”
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp... More by Keith Cowing