Superflies bred to be the first astronauts on Titan
December 16, 2011
The Quest for Drosophila titanus (credit: Andy Gracie)
Artist Andy Gracie is attempting to breed a strain of fruit fly that could survive on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, New Scientist CultureLab reports.
The first stage of his work, “The Quest for Drosophila Titanus,” is part of an exhibition currently touring the UK.
The purpose? “In about three to four billion years, the Sun will expand so much that Earth will become uninhabitable, but perhaps then it might warm up Titan sufficiently to make it an environment in which extreme forms of life could survive.”
In Stephen Baxter’s Manifold: Time, a genetically engineered squid travels to space, and her descendants will colonize space (instead of humans). — Ed.
Comments (5)
by NakedApe
I vote for ‘Drosophila titanis’ — has a nice euphonious ring to it.
by Lord Penguin
I don’t think that, in three to four billion years, we’ll have to move our race to a moon… by then we’ll almost certainly either be dead or have at least the technology to move our race to another solar system, build a protective dome around earth, terraform mars, or some similar solution.
You never know when creating a super-organism could be useful, though. I see this as more of a genetics experiment that would help future science than something that creates a practical solution, which is fine by me.
by DanR
Shouldn’t we at least make sure life doesn’t already exist there? If not, maybe we’d prefer to see how life would evolve on it’s own. But I suppose our need to do whatever we can will prevail.
by bdipaolo
Great idea, but he needs to get the name straight. First, Drosophila is feminine. And there are three attested Latin adjectival forms of Titan, which would result in either Drosophila titania, Drosophila titaniaca or Drosophila titanis. But “Drosophila titanus” is right out.
by Doug
Who knows…he might come up with some prissy little thing where ‘Drosophila
Titanus’ might apply.