Genetically modified green people with chlorophyll are being imagined as a way to get around the need for resources during extended spaceflight.
All flesh is grass, and all grass is captured sunlight. More than two billion years ago, single-celled organisms began the process of harvesting energy from sunlight through photosynthesis and releasing oxygen as a byproduct. Oxygen makes our air breathable, but back then, it was toxic to several life forms and caused a mass extinction event, wiping out anaerobic forms of life. More than a billion years ago, a single-celled ancestor of modern plants swallowed one of these photosynthetic factories and didn’t digest it. Instead, it kept these forerunners of chloroplasts. Since then, algae and plants have been using these factories …
Anirban, a microbiologist by training, is the author of COVID-19: Separating Fact From Fiction.
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