NASA's 'chemical laptop' could hunt for signs of alien life

A tricked-out laptop developed by NASA may one day detect life on another world.

Scientists working with the space agency are in the process of developing a tool called the Chemical Laptop that can read a sample of material on another cosmic body — like Jupiter's icy, fascinating moon Europa or Mars — and figure out if certain signatures could be signs of alien life.

The laptop is designed to take a liquid sample and mix it with a dye that will adhere itself to amino or fatty acids — organic compounds that can be a signature of life — which can then be picked out through laser detectionNASA compares the tool to a Star Trek "tricorder" for sniffing out alien life signs. Read more...