Even with growing awareness of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions are still climbing. And, in recent years, scientists have worked to apply advances in synthetic biology — the application of engineering principles to the study of organic life — toward some of our most pressing environmental challenges.
Researchers hope to tap synthetic life-forms to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide, or CO2, into food, fuel and organic chemicals that humans can use. But many previous attempts, like a 2016 effort to synthesize sugar from CO2 in bacteria, have seen limited success.
