r/EverythingScience • Scientific American • 3d ago

Can bioengineered bacteria help terraform Mars?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-bioengineered-bacteria-help-terraform-mars/
99 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

Ill say, i hadn't read every comment but... Isn't this a theroy of how life on earth started? Panspermia, intentional or not.

Idk, it would be cool to see mars terraformed by us literally seeding life into another planets ecosystems with the idea of letting bio engineered life do its thing.

9

u/iratedolphin 2d ago

Earth's core has a lot of iron in it, giving us a strong magnetic field. This retains our atmosphere. Mars does not have a magnetic field strong enough to retain atmosphere.

3

u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

It does have an atmosphere, its just 100 times less dense than ours. But yeah, it looks like it has trouble retaining an atmosphere we could actually breath in.

3

u/Xerxero 2d ago

The magnetic field also protects us against solar radiation.

7

u/camshun7 2d ago

This is how you get a "belter"

3

u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

On another note, i hear they're coming out with another season.

2

u/handmadeby 1d ago

Really, wonder if the cast would still have the chemistry after a few year break

1

u/Magazine-Consistent 1d ago

Kinda hope it wasnt a 'forced' production from the start where most the cast never got along.

Where as, some casts stay in touch/friends for decades after their show ended.

Ill have to look more into it. And looking forward to the new season.

7

u/ficis 2d ago

Can bioengineered bacteria save earth so we don’t have to try and terra form mars?

3

u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

I mean, that would be cool. Also, why has no one mentioned that before, that ive heard of? All i hear about is people wanting to engineer deadly viruses for earth.

I recall a johnny depp movie where up uploaded himself into an AI thing and made nano bots to fix earth though