To boldly sow: Seeding the galaxy with Earthly life

Life 2 February 2011
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Go forth and multiply

(Image: L Allen (Harvard-Smithsonian CFA)/D. Padgett (SSC-Caltech/NASA)

Editorial:To boldly sow: why we should fertilise the galaxy

If there is no life on other planets, let’s send it there

EARTH’S first interstellar expedition seems to be a disaster. During the long journey most of the passengers die from radiation sickness. When at last the spacecraft arrives, it crash-lands on the surface of a bleak and barren world. The capsule splits open and the alien air finishes off many of the remaining explorers. Over the ensuing days, some of the few survivors succumb to the extreme temperatures, while others die after drinking from pools of acid.


But one stalwart survives. Soon there is even better news: our explorer divides into two clones. Earth life reproduces for the first time under the light of an alien star. Its offspring mutate and begin to adapt to their new home, eventually spreading across the planet and evolving into new forms of life. That’s one small step for a bug, one giant leap for bugkind.

Why would we want to replace Captain Kirk with a bacterium? Because the dream of humans travelling to other stars, while not impossible, may yet turn out to be unfeasible.

If we can’t go in person, then instead we could recruit our single-celled cousins as astronauts. “We are at a point now where we almost have the ability to send micro-organisms to other worlds,” says Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “We can generate a vast amount of life in the universe. It …

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