Inside The Lab Growing Mutant Bacteria To Terraform Earth

Scientists in Barcelona are gene-editing bacteria to restore degraded drylands as a kind of 'terraformation' using engineered microbes instead of geoengineering. Ricard Solé's team at the Biomedical Research Park starts with hardy cyanobacteria from arid Spanish soil, subjecting them to harsh conditions to isolate survivors, then using CRISPR to enhance their ability to capture and retain moisture. Per Noema Magazine, the edited microbes would secrete hyaluronic acid, which absorbs water and binds soil, potentially halting ecosystem collapse in regions like Southern Spain. The team openly acknowledges this raises the specter of uncontrolled proliferation and cascading ecological collapse—yet they've tested engineered variants in artificial ecosystems and found no evidence that introduced mutants spiral out of control. Drylands, which cover more than forty percent of Earth's land surface, depend on delicate crusts of bacteria, fungi, and mosses to bind soil and regulate scarce moisture, and these layers are increasingly failing as the climate warms.

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