Imagine being able to create life from a printer. The biologist Craig Venter not only thought of it, but also developed the machine capable of accomplishing this miracle-like feat.
By 2016, Craig had already created a new species of bacteria in the laboratory. Now he has been able to develop a machine capable of printing this synthetic lifestyle. The invention may be used for the early colonization of Mars with the use of synthetic life even before stepping there.
The technique, called biological teleportation, is being worked on by the biologist, in partnership with Elon Musk, and promises to send codes for equipment on Mars, allowing the printing of life forms. At least that's what they believe in the field of theories.
The new equipment is called a digital-to-biological converter (DBC) and is the first machine that can receive genetic sequences through the internet or radio waves. This means that it is able to print all four bases of our DNA - guanine, thymine, cytine and adenine (G, T, C and A) - by remote control.
"Just like a normal printer, it needs cartridges, but instead of colors, it's bottles of chemical compounds," explained Craig Venter.
The biologist has been working on printer prototypes for years, but now he has finally been able to produce biological compounds such as DNA models, RNA molecules, proteins and viral particles without human intervention.
The printer has already been able to produce influenza virus particles (H1N1) and life forms that fight infections caused by bacteria. In the near future, the idea is to make the impression of much more complex things like food, vaccines and forms of simple bacteria.
Even if Craig's dream of putting these machines on Mars can be realized, he is still a long way away, because of the difficulty of sending this kind of technology to the planet 206 million kilometers. Still, the idea of synthetic life can be a reality close to who is right here on Earth.
Craig's team has already been able to produce a kind of bacterium using only 437 genes, the minimum number needed to compose a genetic code that manages life, as we have known so far. For comparison, the shortest genome found in nature has 525 genes and belongs to the species Mycoplasma genitalium, associated with sexually transmitted infections.
This year another team of filmmakers also announced that it was able to produce the first six-letter genetic code and used the discovery to develop semisynthetic organisms. "This semi-synthetic organism is a stable form of semisynthetic life and presents the foundation of efforts to create life with new forms and functions," they announced at the time.
All this makes it very clear that no other life forms are coming and we can only hope that the Earth - and Mars, why not? - be ready for it.
What do you think of the technology created by Craig Venter and his team? Will he and Elon Musk be able to send the printers into space and colonize the red planet with new ways of life?
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