Dr William Bains

2025

• Agrawal, R. et al. 2025. Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122(33), article number: e2425520122. (10.1073/pnas.2425520122)
• Duzdevich, D., Nisler, C., Petkowski, J. J., Bains, W., Kaminsky, C. K., Szostak, J. W. and Seager, S. 2025. Simple lipids form stable higher-order structures in concentrated sulfuric acid. Astrobiology 25(4), pp. 270-283. (10.1089/ast.2024.0124)
• Petkowski, J. J. et al. 2025. Astrobiological implications of the stability and reactivity of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) in concentrated sulfuric acid.. Science Advances 11(13), article number: eadr0006. (10.1126/sciadv.adr0006)
• Bains, W. 2025. Linking fungal genomics to thermal growth limits: A dataset of 730 sequenced species. Data 10(4), article number: 42. (10.3390/data10040042)
• Petkowski, J. J., Seager, M. D., Bains, W., Grimes, J. H. and Seager, S. 2025. Mechanism for peptide bond solvolysis in 98% w/w concentrated sulfuric acid. ACS Omega 10(9), pp. 9623-9629. (10.1021/acsomega.4c10873)

2024

• Bains, W., Petkowski, J. J. and Seager, S. 2024. Alternative solvents for life: framework for evaluation, current status, and future research. Astrobiology 24(12), pp. 1231-1256. (10.1089/ast.2024.0004)
• Petkowski, J. J., Seager, M. D., Bains, W. and Seager, S. 2024. General instability of dipeptides in concentrated sulfuric acid as relevant for the Venus cloud habitability. Scientific Reports 14(1), article number: 17083. (10.1038/s41598-024-67342-w)
• Petkowski, J. J., Seager, S. and Bains, W. 2024. Reasons why life on Earth rarely makes fluorine-containing compounds and their implications for the search for life beyond Earth. Scientific Reports 14(1), article number: 15575. (10.1038/s41598-024-66265-w)
• Bains, W., Petkowski, J. J. and Seager, S. 2024. Venus' atmospheric chemistry and cloud characteristics are compatible with Venusian life. Astrobiology 24(4), pp. 371-385. (10.1089/ast.2022.0113)
• Seager, S. et al. 2024. Year-long stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: implications for the persistence of organic chemistry in Venus’ clouds. Life 14(5), article number: 538. (10.3390/life14050538)
• Petkowski, J. J. et al. 2024. Astrobiological potential of Venus atmosphere chemical anomalies and other unexplained cloud properties. Astrobiology 24(4), article number: 343. (10.1089/ast.2022.0060)
• Seager, M. D., Seager, S., Bains, W. and Petkowski, J. J. 2024. Stability of 20 biogenic amino acids in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus' clouds. Astrobiology 24(4), pp. 386-396. (10.1089/ast.2023.0082)
• Bains, W., Seager, S., Clements, D. L., Greaves, J. S., Rimmer, P. B. and Petkowski, J. J. 2024. Source of phosphine on Venus—An unsolved problem. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 11, article number: 1372057. (10.3389/fspas.2024.1372057)

2023

• Seager, S., Petkowski, J. J., Huang, J., Zhan, Z., Ravela, S. and Bains, W. 2023. Fully fluorinated non-carbon compounds NF3 and SF6 as ideal technosignature gases. Scientific Reports 13, article number: 13576. (10.1038/s41598-023-39972-z)
• Seager, S. et al. 2023. Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus'clouds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120(25), article number: e2220007120. (10.1073/pnas.2220007120)

2022

• Duzdevich, D. et al. 2022. An experimental approach to inform Venus astrobiology mission design and science objectives. Aerospace 9(10), article number: 597. (10.3390/aerospace9100597)
• Bains, W., Viita, E., Petkowski, J. J. and Seager, S. 2022. Stratospheric chemical lifetime of aviation fuel incomplete combustion products. Atmosphere 13(8), article number: e1209. (10.3390/atmos13081209)
• Bains, W. et al. 2022. Venusian phosphine: a 'wow!' signal in chemistry?. Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Silicon and the Related Elements 197(5-6), pp. 438-443. (10.1080/10426507.2021.1998051)
• Greaves, J. S. et al. 2022. Low levels of sulphur dioxide contamination of Venusian phosphine spectra. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 514(2), pp. 2994-3001. (10.1093/mnras/stac1438)
• Ranjan, S. et al. 2022. Photochemical runaway in exoplanet atmospheres: implications for biosignatures. Astrophysical Journal 930(2), article number: 131. (10.3847/1538-4357/ac5749)
• Bains, W., Petkowski, J. J., Zhan, Z. and Seager, S. 2022. A data resource for prediction of gas-phase thermodynamic properties of small molecules. Data 7(3), article number: 33. (10.3390/data7030033)
• Bains, W., Shorttle, O., Ranjan, S., Rimmer, P. B., Petkowski, J. J., Greaves, J. S. and Seager, S. 2022. Only extraordinary volcanism can explain the presence of parts per billion phosphine on Venus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(7), article number: e2121702119. (10.1073/pnas.2121702119)

2021

• Bains, W., Petkowski, J. J., Zhan, Z. and Seager, S. 2021. Evaluating alternatives to water as solvents for life: the example of sulfuric acid. Life 11(5), article number: 400. (10.3390/life11050400)
• Bains, W., Borriello, E. and Schulze-Makuch, D. 2021. Evolution of default genetic control mechanisms. PLoS ONE 16(5), article number: e0251568. (10.1371/journal.pone.0251568)