The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds

Author:	Mason, Christopher E.
Binding:	Hardcover
List Price:	$29.95
Our Price:	$6.75 USD
Qty Avail:	14

Additional Info
Overview

ISBN:	9780262044400
Publisher:	MIT Press
Language:	English
Page Count:	280
Publication Date:	4/20/2021
Size:	9.35" l x 6.17" w x 1.10"
Series:	N/A

Category	Subject
Science	Life Sciences
Medical	Internal Medicine
Technology	Biomedical

Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. to avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms - not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds.