Designing Life For Mars

Geneticist Craig Venter, who led a team that successfully mapped the human genome a decade ago, and more recently led a team that created the first synthetic life, is currently working on creating a life form that eats carbon dioxide.

Venter says the primary reason for his current project is to find a way to counter global warming on Earth. Carbon dioxide, of course, is a major greenhouse gas. Venter also made the point, however, that such carbon dioxide eaters could also make Mars a more hospitable place for humans. By gobbling up the CO2 in the Martian atmosphere and producing biofuels and the raw material for a plastics industry, for instance, such synthetic life forms could help build the first human settlement on Mars.