In one room chemists are fabricating a range of organic molecules they hope will function as mechanical components.
In these layers, scientists are looking for organic molecules, which are necessary to create life.
This is especially important for finding organic molecules that might be destroyed on the surface.
The article's author, Dr. Ian Calder, believes organic molecules called congeners could be more responsible than ethanol.
Even more exciting, large organic molecules can be exploited in a reverse process--converting light to electricity--with potentially far-reaching effects.
Most asteroids are made of rock, while comets can be a mixture of rock, organic molecules and frozen gases.
But organic molecules could be manufactured on Mars from nonlife sources, or they could come from meteorites and comets.
Because of abundant solar ultraviolet radiation at the surface, organic molecules might not be preserved as well as clay minerals.
Tiny particles of silver are coated with organic molecules so that they float, and are then added to silicone oil.
Using its science tools, the rover will test for organic molecules, which would indicate the planet could have once hosted life.
But their technology was based on the luminescent abilities of small organic molecules--single molecules--in contrast to the large ones--chains of molecules--Friend utilized.
That means studying this asteroid could yield greater understanding about the sources of organic molecules and water that gave rise to life.
Using its science tools, Curiosity will test for organic molecules, which would indicate the planet could have hosted life at one time.
In these areas, the water appears to be covered by a dark material that the researchers suspect might be complex organic molecules.
Recently, the Mars rover Curiosity took its first whiff of the Martian air, but found no sign of methane or other organic molecules.
At the moment, organic molecules can't yet beat silicon in photovoltaics.
Small organic molecules won't dissolve in a liquid and so must be deposited onto a screen using a process similar to etching a standard computer chip.
For example, although the findings concerning water are exciting, the presence of water may mean that organic molecules indicative of life were not well-preserved, Grotzinger said.
Despite the excitement over achieving one of the mission's main goals, it has yet to find complex organic molecules considered the chemical building blocks of life.
Nor is Phoenix equipped to detect micro-organisms, though it will be able to sniff out organic molecules if these are around, and that will be a tantalising clue.
Many organic molecules contain what are known as chiral centres.
With the habitability issue out of the way, Curiosity has yet to explore the question of organic molecules, which could indicate life but could also come from other sources.
"At very low angles, we think that some water-ice from the comet would remain intact as a liquid puddle concentrated with organic molecules, ideal for the development of life, " Blank said.
In 1989, tinkering with materials he hoped would amplify electrical signals, Cambridge University physics professor Richard Friend and his graduate students were testing large organic molecules to see whether they were good insulators.
There was even speculation about a dark material on the tiny planet that could conceivably contain the same organic molecules being hunted on Mars, the carbon-based building blocks that are essential to all life.
Don't get carried away thinking there's life on Mars just yet, however, because NASA's boffins aren't sure the organic molecules are native -- they may have come from Earth on this, or a previous mission.
Curiosity is only about a quarter of the way through its primary mission, so there's lots of time to search for more watery evidence, as well as for any elusive associated organic molecules, which have yet to be found.
In a briefing, Nasa scientists announced that Curiosity had detected organic compounds - complex molecules containing carbon, without which no known life can develop.
And going through the hyper-rational process fits in well with other cultural artifacts of medicine like memorizing a thousand carbon molecules to pass organic chemistry or spending six months studying for the MCATs.
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These are known generically as inorganic nanotubes, reflecting the distinction in chemists' minds between organic (ie, carbon-based) molecules, and all the others.
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