"Will the Mars rovers be able to look for fossils (gross and/or microscopic)? If so, is it part of the exploration plan?"
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Nickel: The New Biomarker
June 23, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
Members of NAI’s team at Penn State and their colleagues have a new paper in PNAS exploring the viability of using isotopes of the element nickel as biomarkers. Nickel is an important trace nutrient for methanogens, which preferentially use one isotope of nickel over another in their metabolic processes. Nickel, unlike iron, doesn’t seem to go through significant redox changes without a biological tie, therefore considering it as a biomarker is less complicated and potentially more reliable. Testing ancient sediments and observing nickel isotopic fractionation could pinpoint where and when methanogens arose.
Source: [Penn State press release]
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