The Hidden Presence: False Negatives in Astrobiology
When searching for life beyond Earth, scientists are haunted by a single fear: announcing a discovery that isn’t really there. Yet, by exclusively focusing our scrutiny on avoiding these illusions, have we blinded ourselves to reality? This brings us to a critical, yet neglected, challenge in astrobiology: the risk of the false negative – in other words, concluding that life is absent when it may, in fact, be present. History has indeed taught us that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The fundamental question now facing space exploration is no longer just how to find life, but rather: how do we ensure we haven’t already missed it? It is precisely this question that an ISSI Working Group, led by Inge Loes ten Kate, Lena Noack, and Emmanuelle Javaux, set out to address.
