But new research published in Nature Astronomy suggests the answer may lie not in the molecules themselves, but in the hidden patterns that connect them.

“We’re showing that life does not only produce molecules,” said Fabian Klenner, UC Riverside assistant professor of planetary sciences and co-author of the study. “Life also produces an organizational principle that we can see by applying statistics.”

Hidden Chemical Patterns May Reveal Life

The researchers discovered that amino acids found in living systems tend to be both more varied and more evenly distributed than amino acids formed through nonbiological processes. Fatty acids showed the opposite trend, with nonliving chemical processes producing more even distributions than biological ones.

According to the team, this is the first study to show that this underlying signature of life can be detected through statistics alone, without relying on any single specialized instrument. That means the approach could potentially work using data already being collected by current and future space missions.

The findings arrive at a time when planetary exploration is advancing rapidly. Missions studying Mars, Europa, Enceladus, and other worlds are producing increasingly detailed measurements of organic chemistry. However, interpreting those chemical signals remains a major challenge.

Many molecules linked to life on Earth, including amino acids and fatty acids, can also form naturally without biology. Scientists have found them in meteorites and created them in laboratory experiments designed to mimic space environments. Because of that, simply detecting these compounds is not considered strong enough evidence to confirm life.

“Astrobiology is fundamentally a forensic science,” said Gideon Yoffe, postdoctoral researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and first author of the study. “We’re trying to infer processes from incomplete clues, often with very limited data collected by missions that are extraordinarily expensive and infrequent.”

Borrowing a Tool From Ecology

To tackle the problem, the researchers adapted a statistical method commonly used in ecology. Ecologists measure biodiversity using two main concepts: richness, which describes how many different species are present, and evenness, which measures how uniformly they are distributed.

Yoffe first encountered this framework during doctoral studies in statistics and data science, where diversity metrics were used to uncover patterns in complicated datasets, including research involving ancient human cultures.

The team then applied the same statistical logic to chemistry associated with possible extraterrestrial life.

Using roughly 100 existing datasets, the scientists examined amino acids and fatty acids from microbes, soils, fossils, meteorites, asteroids, and synthetic laboratory samples. Again and again, biological materials displayed distinct organizational patterns that separated them from nonliving chemistry.

Fossils Still Carried Signs of Ancient Life

One of the most surprising findings was how effective the method remained despite its simplicity.

By analyzing samples through this statistical lens, the researchers could reliably distinguish biological samples from abiotic ones. They also observed that biological materials formed a continuum ranging from well preserved to heavily degraded.

“That was genuinely surprising,” Klenner said. “The method captured not only the distinction between life and nonlife, but also degrees of preservation and alteration.”

Even samples that had undergone significant degradation still preserved traces of this organizational structure. Fossilized dinosaur eggshells included in the study, for example, continued to show detectable statistical patterns connected to ancient biological activity.

A New Tool for Future Space Missions

The researchers caution that no single technique will be enough to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.

“Any future claim of having found life would require multiple independent lines of evidence, interpreted within the geological and chemical context of a planetary environment,” Klenner said.

Even so, the team believes this framework could become a valuable addition to future planetary missions searching for evidence of life beyond Earth.

“Our approach is one more way to assess whether life may have been there,” Klenner said. “And if different techniques all point in the same direction, then that becomes very powerful.”

The discovery, published in The Astrophysical Journal, offers scientists a rare look at how planets may form in extreme cosmic environments and highlights Hubble’s continuing role in exploring the universe.

Giant Planet-Forming Disk Unlike Any Seen Before

The system, known as IRAS 23077+6707 and nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” is located about 1,000 light-years from Earth. The giant disk stretches nearly 400 billion miles across, making it about 40 times wider than our solar system out to the Kuiper Belt.

At the center of the disk is a young star hidden by thick clouds of dust and gas. Researchers think the object may be a single massive star or possibly two stars orbiting each other. Besides being the largest planet-forming disk ever identified, scientists say it may also be one of the strangest.

“The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging, and these new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected,” said lead author Kristina Monsch of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). “We’re seeing this disk nearly edge-on and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking. Both Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have glimpsed similar structures in other disks, but IRAS 23077+6707 provides us with an exceptional perspective — allowing us to trace its substructures in visible light at an unprecedented level of detail. This makes the system a unique, new laboratory for studying planet formation and the environments where it happens.”

The unusual nickname reflects the backgrounds of the researchers involved. One scientist is from Transylvania, while another is from Uruguay, where a chivito is a popular sandwich. Viewed edge-on, the disk resembles a hamburger with a dark center surrounded by glowing layers of dust and gas above and below it.

Mysterious One-Sided Filaments

Scientists were especially intrigued by the disk’s uneven appearance. Hubble’s images revealed towering filament-like structures extending from only one side of the disk, while the opposite side appears sharply defined and lacks similar features.

Researchers believe this strange asymmetry could be caused by active processes within the system, such as fresh material falling into the disk or interactions with nearby surroundings.

“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” said co-investigator Joshua Bennett Lovell, also an astronomer at the CfA. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets — processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”

Clues to How Planetary Systems Form

Planetary systems develop from massive disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars. Over time, some of the material falls into the star while the remaining matter gradually forms planets.

Scientists estimate the mass of IRAS 23077+6707 may equal 10 to 30 times the mass of Jupiter, providing more than enough material to create several giant planets. Researchers say the system could resemble an oversized version of the early solar system.

“In theory, IRAS 23077+6707 could host a vast planetary system,” said Monsch. “While planet formation may differ in such massive environments, the underlying processes are likely similar. Right now, we have more questions than answers, but these new images are a starting point for understanding how planets form over time and in different environments.”

Hubble’s Continuing Discoveries

The Hubble Space Telescope has operated for more than 30 years and continues to deliver major discoveries that expand scientists’ understanding of the cosmos. Hubble is a joint project between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees telescope and mission operations, while Lockheed Martin Space in Denver also supports operations. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, manages Hubble’s science operations for NASA.

Led by Professor Mingxin Huang in HKU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the team developed a special stainless steel for hydrogen production (SS-H₂). The material resists corrosion under conditions that normally push stainless steel past its limits, making it a promising candidate for producing hydrogen from seawater and other harsh electrolyzer environments.

The discovery, reported in Materials Today in the study “A sequential dual-passivation strategy for designing stainless steel used above water oxidation,” builds on Huang’s long running “Super Steel” Project. The same research program previously produced anti-COVID-19 stainless steel in 2021, along with ultra strong and ultra tough Super Steel in 2017 and 2020.

A Cheaper Path Toward Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen is made by using electricity, ideally from renewable sources, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Seawater is an especially tempting feedstock because it is abundant, but it brings a serious materials problem: salt, chloride ions, side reactions, and corrosion can quickly damage electrolyzer components.

Recent reviews of direct seawater electrolysis continue to highlight the same core challenge. The technology could provide a more sustainable route to hydrogen, but corrosion, chlorine related side reactions, catalyst degradation, precipitates, and limited long term durability remain major obstacles to commercial use.

That is where SS-H₂ could matter. In a salt water electrolyzer, the HKU team found that the new steel can perform comparably to the titanium based structural materials used in current industrial practice for hydrogen production from desalted seawater or acid. The difference is cost. Titanium parts coated with precious metals such as gold or platinum are expensive, while stainless steel is far more economical.

For a 10 megawatt PEM electrolysis tank system, the total cost at the time of the HKU report was estimated at about HK$17.8 million, with structural components making up as much as 53% of that expense. According to the team’s estimate, replacing those costly structural materials with SS-H₂ could reduce the cost of structural material by about 40 times.

Why Ordinary Stainless Steel Fails

Stainless steel has been used for more than a century in corrosive environments because it protects itself. The key ingredient is chromium. When chromium (Cr) oxidizes, it creates a thin passive film that shields the steel from damage.

But that familiar protection system has a built in ceiling. In conventional stainless steel, the chromium based protective layer can break down at high electrical potentials. Stable Cr₂O₃ can be further oxidized into soluble Cr(VI) species, causing transpassive corrosion at around ~1000 mV (saturated calomel electrode, SCE). That is well below the ~1600 mV needed for water oxidation.

Even 254SMO super stainless steel, a benchmark chromium based alloy known for strong pitting resistance in seawater, runs into this high voltage limit. It may perform well in ordinary marine settings, but the extreme electrochemical environment of hydrogen production is a different challenge.

The Steel That Builds a Second Shield

The HKU team’s answer was a strategy called “sequential dual-passivation.” Instead of relying only on the usual chromium oxide barrier, SS-H₂ forms a second protective layer.

The first layer is the familiar Cr₂O₃ based passive film. Then, at around ~720 mV, a manganese based layer forms on top of the chromium based layer. This second shield helps protect the steel in chloride containing environments up to an ultra high potential of 1700 mV.

That is what makes the finding so striking. Manganese is usually not viewed as a friend of stainless steel corrosion resistance. In fact, the prevailing view has been that manganese weakens it.

“Initially, we did not believe it because the prevailing view is that Mn impairs the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Mn-based passivation is a counter-intuitive discovery, which cannot be explained by current knowledge in corrosion science. However, when numerous atomic-level results were presented, we were convinced. Beyond being surprised, we cannot wait to exploit the mechanism,” said Dr. Kaiping Yu, the first author of the article, whose PhD is supervised by Professor Huang.

A Six Year Push From Surprise to Application

The path from the first observation to publication was not quick. The team spent nearly six years moving from the initial discovery of the unusual stainless steel to the deeper scientific explanation, then toward publication and potential industrial use.

“Different from the current corrosion community, which mainly focuses on the resistance at natural potentials, we specializes in developing high-potential-resistant alloys. Our strategy overcame the fundamental limitation of conventional stainless steel and established a paradigm for alloy development applicable at high potentials. This breakthrough is exciting and brings new applications,” Professor Huang said.

The work has also moved beyond the laboratory. The research achievements have been submitted for patents in multiple countries, and two patents had already been granted authorization at the time of the HKU announcement. The team also reported that tons of SS-H₂ based wire had been produced with a factory in Mainland China.

“From experimental materials to real products, such as meshes and foams, for water electrolyzers, there are still challenging tasks at hand. Currently, we have made a big step toward industrialization. Tons of SS-H₂-based wire has been produced in collaboration with a factory from the Mainland. We are moving forward in applying the more economical SS-H₂ in hydrogen production from renewable sources,” added Professor Huang.

Why the Timing Still Matters

Although the SS-H₂ study was published in 2023, its core problem has only become more relevant. Newer seawater electrolysis research continues to focus on the same bottlenecks: corrosion resistant materials, long lasting electrodes, chlorine suppression, and system designs that can survive real seawater rather than ideal laboratory solutions. A 2025 Nature Reviews Materials review described direct seawater electrolysis as promising but still held back by corrosion, side reactions, metal precipitates, and limited lifetime.

Other recent work has explored stainless steel based electrodes with protective catalytic layers, including NiFe based coatings and Pt atomic clusters, to improve durability in natural seawater. Researchers have also reported corrosion resistant anode strategies built on stainless steel substrates, showing that stainless steel remains a major focus in the effort to make seawater electrolysis more practical.

This newer research does not replace the SS-H₂ discovery. Instead, it reinforces why the HKU team’s approach is important. The field is still searching for materials that can survive the punishing mix of saltwater chemistry, high voltage, and industrial operating demands. SS-H₂ stands out because it attacks the problem not only with a coating or catalyst, but with a new alloy design strategy that changes how stainless steel protects itself.

A Steel Breakthrough With Clean Energy Potential

SS-H₂ is not yet a plug and play solution for the hydrogen economy. The team has acknowledged that turning experimental materials into real electrolyzer products, including meshes and foams, still involves difficult engineering work.

Even so, the promise is clear. A stainless steel that can withstand high voltage seawater conditions while replacing expensive titanium based components could make hydrogen production cheaper, more scalable, and easier to pair with renewable energy.

For a field where cost and durability often decide whether a technology can leave the lab, a steel that builds its own second shield may be more than a materials science surprise. It could become a practical step toward cleaner hydrogen at industrial scale.