(Credit: NASA) Don’t panic, future astronauts, but GMOs will probably accompany you on your adventures to deep space. Scientists hope to genetically engineer organisms to survive off-Earth and to do some of the dirty work on spaceships and other planets. The field of study is called “space synthetic biology.” And this new frontier in genetic research could be key to opening up the final frontier.
Synthetic biology refers, generally speaking, to the work of giving some organism altered or even novel characteristics by changing its genes. Space synthetic biologists genetically alter organisms to make them more space-worthy — resistant to radiation or heat, for instance — and to make them useful to space missions — like turning Martian dirt into concrete. It sounds “out-there,” but microbes already make our planet habitable and pleasant. “We’re breathing oxygen that was biologically produced,” says Lynn Rothschild, the head of the synthetic biology program ...
