Telluride Science · 2025
Alternative Chemistries Beyond Earth
Venusian heteropolymers and Titan’s amino acids.
Venus / Project overview
Could unfamiliar chemistry emerge in sulfuric-acid clouds?
Life on Earth gives us one chemical example. This study asks whether carbon-free polymer structures could be plausible in a very different planetary setting.
In brief
What the work suggests
Some modeled routes to these carbon-free structures are chemically plausible under the chosen Venus-like conditions. That makes this family of molecules worth further investigation.
Where the evidence stops
The study does not establish that these molecules exist in Venus’s clouds, how abundant they would be, or whether they could have a biological role. Real cloud chemistry involves processes the model does not capture.
The people behind the work
My contribution
I joined Martin Rahm’s group at Chalmers through the CASSUM fellowship. The project began in the group before I arrived; I later led the final calculations and manuscript writing, working with the collaborators credited in the paper.
The approach
Turning a question into calculations
We use computational chemistry to examine model structures built from phosphorus, sulfur, and oxygen. Calculations test selected formation routes, bond-cleavage properties, and potential spectroscopic fingerprints under the study’s assumptions.
Why model a ring instead of a long chain?
A finite chain has end groups that complicate comparisons. A small cyclic structure provides a manageable stand-in for a longer polymer, with limitations that matter when interpreting the results.
See the ideas take shape
Step inside the science.
Follow the setting, explore the model, and take a closer look at the evidence. Technical explanations are there when you want them.
Explore VenusAn open question
If these structures can form, which measurements could distinguish them from other cloud-particle chemistry?
Go to the source
Papers & related resources
- 2025
On the possibility of carbon-free heteropolymers on Venus: a computational astrobiology study (opens in a new tab)
Ishaan Madan, Shekoufeh Arabi Aliabadi, et al. · QRB Discovery 6, e23
View slides (opens in a new tab)
A personal connection
This project grew out of my summer in Sweden before starting at Purdue: a chance to follow an unconventional question while learning what kind of scientific work felt meaningful to me.
Read that part of my story