Reimagining the chemistry of life to address climate change

Since the dawn of life, nature has balanced the composition of our planet’s atmosphere by evolving elegant ways of capturing carbon dioxide. Today, humanity’s overuse of fossil fuels has altered this atmospheric balance to bring about climate change, and nature is poorly equipped to correct it. In this Front Row lecture, Scripps Research assistant professor Ahmed Badran shared how his lab is developing strategies inspired by plants to help sequester the rising levels of carbon dioxide. His breakthroughs in synthetic biology are guiding revolutionary environmental approaches that could make a lasting impact on global warming and agricultural food systems.