… by tinkering in photosynthesis
“…microbes—the group known as cyanobacteria—had mastered a peculiarly powerful form of alchemy. They lived off sunlight, which they converted into sugar. As a waste product, they gave off oxygen. Cyanobacteria were so plentiful, and so good at what they did, that they changed the world. They altered the oceans’ chemistry, and then the atmosphere’s. Formerly in short supply, oxygen became abundant. Anything that couldn’t tolerate it either died off or retreated to some dark, airless corner.” – newyorker (in the print edition of the December 13, 2021)
“… if we can work out how to improve photosynthesis, we can boost yields. We won’t have to go on destroying yet more land for crops—we can try to produce more on the land we’re already using.”
Related:
The Hy1810 yeast in the Expanse.
“Prax worked on and surreptitiously leaked research for the modified yeast which contained an artificial chloroplast that was reverse-engineered from the protomolecule to make energy from a wider range of radiation than natural flora” – “The Expanse: Babylon’s Ashes“, Chapter 24.
… we can also make art–the poetic and the beautiful–more available.
