Breaking: @Pioneer__Labs has engineered a microbe able to live on Mars, consuming solely nutrients found on the planet to create building materials. I interviewed @erika_alden_d, the CEO, to learn how they did it and what might come next. Much of the interview was about bottlenecks to growing life on Mars; the planet has tons of water, but only in the form of ice. (If you melted all that ice, it would create an ocean 100 feet deep across the entire planet!) Similarly, we talked about the dirt. Martian regolith has salts, heavy metals, and perchlorates that are toxic to many organisms. Some microbes on Earth are able to break down these toxins, though, so Pioneer is engineering them to make them better at eating those toxins while adding nutrients back into the soil. This could possibly help support plant life in the future. Watch the full episode and subscribe to @AsimovPress for more. 0:00 A first microbe engineered for Mars 5:03 Simulating Martian chemistry 8:27 The five "pioneer species" 17:20 Water, warming, and nitrogen 26:39 Radiation, growth rates, and poor measurements 35:49 Starship 41:05 Why create a second biosphere?