Ancient Life Off Earth

Using light-capturing proteins in living microbes, scientists have reconstructed what life was like for some of Earth’s earliest organisms. These efforts could help us recognise signs of life on other planets, whose atmospheres may more closely resemble our pre-oxygen planet.

Colours of Distant Life

This poem is inspired by recent research, which has created a colour catalogue to help find life on distant, frozen worlds.

A Complexity of Life

Scattered across the sea the fossilised fingerprints of your invisible touch proclaim the coincidence of our lineage. A single point from which we all emerged,

Jellied Eggs

Between invisible barriers of cool, indifferent oceans transparent medusas dance across clandestine currents. A quorum of gonads sparkling beneath the waves, their immature contents alluringly

Genetic Unmarking

Beneath empty plaques and unmarked plots, the misplaced dead lie resting. The blankness of their generic monuments a simple sleight of hand: these fragmented piles

Breaking Memories

You slide fluently through cool, coastal waters, A balletic grace with unparalleled force That silently slips between the spheres As a distant rumble announces time.

A Dusty Eviction

Within the grimy creases of our home, Lurk microbes poised and floating in the dust; A sullied sign that we are not alone.   We

An Unwanted Tomb

With lines on maps too hard to see, Some call for less transparency; The nightmares of an orange clown, As walls go up the life

A Breath in Time

Within the salt-encrusted lakes of time, Are secret bubbles formed by primal cast; We excavate these drops from faded brine, To understand the structure of

New Life in Hostile Winds

Cast out by winds too fierce to call a home, You sail on seas unbearable to roam; The fury of this interstellar gale Ensured an