Can directed evolution solve climate change?
It can contribute, but it's not a silver bullet. Directed evolution is already being used to engineer enzymes for carbon capture—for example, evolving carbonic anhydrase to convert CO₂ into bicarbonate more efficiently, or designing cellulases to break down plant biomass into sugars for biofuels. My lab has evolved enzymes that make renewable chemicals and plastics from renewable feedstocks, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. But climate change is a systems problem, not just a chemistry problem. You need economic incentives, policy changes, and infrastructure. That said, directed evolution offers a powerful way to create greener industrial processes: enzymes work at mild temperatures and pressures, produce fewer toxic byproducts, and can be made biodegradable. If you want to make something new, you have to be willing to fail—and we've failed plenty. But each failure teaches us how to iterate better. Evolution is the best engineer, but even it can't solve everything overnight.
Ask Frances Arnold the follow-up →