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Blog 28: Designing Life for Other Worlds

Hey everyone! Today I will be talking about a topic that will likely not be relevant for at least another decade. But hey, I guess you never know. What if I were to tell you that the way we explore space in the future might not be with rockets, but a microbe… In today’s world, we imagine future astronauts stepping onto Mars with high-tech suits, rovers, and habitats. But synthetic biology is potentially introducing a new idea: instead of forcing Earth life to survive in other worlds, why not engineer life that already fits there? For the first time in human history, we have the tools to design organisms that could help us breathe, grow food, build materials, and survive beyond Earth. The next space revolution might not come from NASA or SpaceX. It could come from biology. Why Space Is So Hard for Life Space is the most hostile environment we know. There is no oxygen, super intense radiation, extreme cold, toxic soils, microgravity, and it lacks the protective magnetic field that the Ea...
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Blog 27: Storing Data in DNA

If someone told you that the entire internet could fit inside a shoebox, you’d probably laugh at them. But for synthetic biology, it might be possible. Not by shrinking hard drives, but by storing information in something far more powerful: DNA. For billions of years, DNA has been the most efficient, durable, compact storage system on Earth. Every plant, animal, and bacterium uses it to store life’s code. And now, scientists are learning how to use it to store our code. Why DNA Beats Every Storage Device We’ve Ever Built Traditional data storage, like our phones, tablets, and computers, all face the same problems: They take up space, break easily, and decay after a few decades. DNA has none of those weaknesses. Here are some more facts: 1. Density: DNA can store 1 million times more data per gram than a modern hard drive. For example, a single gram could hold over 200 million gigabytes. 2. Durability: DNA can last hundreds of thousands of years, while our digital files last maybe 20–...
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Blog 26: A Synthetic Immune System

Hey everyone! First of all, I wanted to say sorry. I know I’ve been absent for the last few weeks. School started picking up, and I ran out of time to do my daily Sunday blog series. But I’m back today, and it is going to be a big one. I hope you enjoy.  Today’s topic is the immune system. Did you know that your immune system is one of the most powerful machines evolution has ever built? Through time, we have learned that this system can understand, remember, and defend you against millions of threats. And the best part? It can do all of it without you noticing. But what if it could do more than just protect? What if there were a way so that we could program it? Synthetic biology is beginning to rewrite how immunity works, turning it from a reactive system into a programmable network that can detect almost anything. The goal isn’t to build a new immune system. It’s to make our own smarter. The Immune System as Code At its core, the immune system works like biological software. It ...
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Blog 25: Can Synthetic Biology Defeat Aging?

  What if I told you aging didn’t have to be a problem. What if it was something we could reprogram.  For centuries humans have looked for a solution to aging. And while nothing has seemed to show promise, scientists are now looking to solve the issue with synthetic biology. What Is Aging, Really? Aging isn’t just about wrinkles or gray hair. It’s the slow breakdown of the systems that keep us alive. Our cells divide billions of times, and each time, small errors like DNA breaks, protein misfolds, and weakening mitochondria slip through. Eventually, our biological software becomes buggy. But here’s the crazy part: Scientists are realizing that aging is a programmable process . In theory, our cells could be edited, paused, or even reversed to change the way our body “breaks-down” over time. That’s where synthetic biology can step in. Examples of Reprogramming the Clock In 2006, scientists discovered how to take a skin cell and turn it back into a stem cell using just four gene...
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