Lipid of the Month

Each month we highlight a lipid of scientific interest. The LIPID MAPS® Lipid of the Month Archive lists lipids highlighted from 2015 - present.

April 2025

Lipid of the month Dodecane

Curiosity, it is said, killed the cat. Obviously, not Curiosity, the rover exploring the surface of Mars, as that would be incontrovertible proof that there is (or was!) life on our neighbouring planet in a feline form. The Curiosity rover has however found more tantalising evidence that might point to life, either existant or, more likely, now extinct1.

The “Sample Analysis at Mars” instrument on board Curiosity- a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) has detected long chain alkanes, including dodecane, when analysing chemicals from a mudstone rock. This rock is in the Gale Crater near the Martian equator. While there are non-biological means of producing this molecule it could also be formed from degradation of fatty acids. Further, the researchers could not determine if dodecane itself was present in the rock sample, or if it was formed in the instrument as the sample was heated, decarboxylating a fatty acid present on Mars.

Of course dodecane is abundant on Earth too, as it is a component of oil (itself a biological residue!). Its found in kerosene, (also termed paraffin) which forms aviation fuel among many other fuel oils2.

References

Lipid of the Month Archive

2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015