Space / Extraterrestrial Life

he ability to manipulate DNA is the central technology that has powered biomedical science over the past 25 years. We have gained the ability to cut and paste the long string of the DNA, move snippets of DNA from one organism to another, read DNA text and change it as well as create new DNA segments at will. DNA technology has given us direct access to the central program of life and made it possible for us to harness the enormous

reproductive and evolutionary power of living organisms for our advantage. It also enabled one of mankind’s greatest technical achievements—the reading of the entire genetic code of a human being—and gave birth to a new industry, biotechnology, from which flow products that improve the lives and

health of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Progress in biomedicine over the next 25 years will be driven by our ability to manipulate human cells for healing. We have already learned to isolate and propagate human embryonic stem cells, those generators of life that hold the potential to become any cell, any tissue, and any organ of the human body. During the next quarter century we will learn to mold these plastic cells to restore, replace, and regenerate all parts of the body, whether they be injured by trauma, damaged by disease, or worn by time.With this new facility will also come the knowledge to similarly manipulate the myriad types of cells that compose our body, to usher in the new age of cellular therapy. What was once lost will now be restored, be it muscle, brain, or bone.

am impressed by observations during the last 25 years that show the presence of many organic molecules, including amino acids and other biological constituents, in outer space and on extraterrestrial objects, not only in the solar system but probably also elsewhere in our galaxy and in others. Some of the processes involved are now being reproduced in the laboratory under physical conditions (very low temperature, very high vacuum, high radiation) mimicking those that prevail in outer space. These findings have revealed that some of the main building blocks of life arise spontaneously in many parts of the universe as products of cosmic chemistry, available for the possible development of life wherever conditions allow. Predicting the future is not a scientific exercise. What I would find particularly exciting would be the discovery, around a nearby star, of an Earth-like planet exhibiting physical conditions under which the products of cosmic chemistry could give rise to living organisms, as they are suspected of having done on our planet 4 billion years ago. Many extrasolar planets have already been discovered. But technical improvements will be needed before an Earth-like planet can be detected.

CHRISTIAN DE DUVE, FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY, BRUSSELS; NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, 1974