Martin Rahm
Photographer: Johan Bodell7Chalmers
“Titan is a fascinating place to test our understanding of the limits of prebiotic chemistry – the chemistry that precedes life. What chemical, or possibly biological, structures might form, given enough time under such different conditions? The suggestion of azotosomes was a really interesting proposal for an alternative to cell membranes as we understand them,” says Martin Rahm, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. “But our new research paper shows that, unfortunately, although the structure could indeed tolerate the extremes of Titan, it would not form in the first place,” he explains.