Scientists hail pioneering software in hunt for alien life

Researchers hope to analyse materials from Mars using program that can detect biosignatures' of other life forms

It is the cloud that overshadows the search for alien life: for all the spacecraft sent to faraway worlds, researchers do not really know what to look for when it comes to evidence of life elsewhere.

Now, scientists are claiming progress with the puzzle after training a computer program to distinguish chemical mixtures made by living organisms from those created in more prosaic processes, such as reactions between sunlight and rocks.