There was an error in the original article [1]. It has come to our attention that there has been previous work presented in print concerning some of the topics addressed in this article. The abstract has thus been modified and additional references citing this work have been added.
A correction has been made to the Abstract:
The sentence “To our knowledge this is the first comprehensive demonstration of the utility of this analytical technique for the detection of biology.” has been deleted.
A correction has been made to Introduction, Paragraph 7:
The sentence “Individual signatures are generally not conclusive, but integrated evidence across multiple independent signatures can potentially sharpen detection [4].” has been added.
A correction has been made to Introduction, Paragraph 8:
The sentence “However, Mathis et al. [5] have proposed a method based on assembly pathways to identify molecules which, regardless of the apparent complexity of their structure, would be fundamentally complex for a system to produce. This may provide a way to identify molecules produced by a form of life unlike that on Earth, which are yet likely to be the product of a living system.” has been added.
The corresponding references have been newly added:
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4.
Walker, S.I.; Cronin, L.; Drew, A.; Domagal-Goldman, S.; Fisher, T.; Line, M.; Millsaps, C. Probabilistic frameworks for life detection. In Planetary Astrobiology (Space Science Series); Meadows, V., Des Marais, D.J., Arney, G., Schmidt, B., Eds.; University of Arizona Press: Phoenix, AZ, USA, 2020; pp. 447–505.
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5.
Mathis, C.; Carrick, E.; Keenan, G.; Cooper, G.; Graham, H.; Bame, J.; Craven, M.; Bell N, Gromski, P.S.; Swart, M.; et al. Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry. Chemarxiv 2020, preprint, doi:10.26434/chemrxiv.13227881.
The authors apologize for any inconvenience caused and state that the scientific conclusions are unaffected. The original article has been updated.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Footnotes
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Reference
- 1.Guttenberg N., Chen H., Mochizuki T., Cleaves H.J., II Classification of the Biogenicity of Complex Organic Mixtures for the Detection of Extraterrestrial Life. Life. 2021;11:234. doi: 10.3390/life11030234. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]