How to detect life on other planets remotely

Here's a really cool Ted talk by this guy named Adami. Adami is a physicist who has devised mathematical algorithms for detecting life by just using spectral analysis. It's pretty amazing what he does in the talk:

www.ted.com...

The avida system is amazing. The viability threshold he talks about in the 15th minutes is really interesting.

Meh..
NASA have been doing this for a long time

a reply to: Spacespider

I listened to the talk. It was very interesting. During the first 10 mins of the talk Chris Adami says NASA went to him. Not he copied NASA.

If NASA already had the system in place, why go to him to figure it out? Can you expand on your answer a bit please?