This is quite an astonishing read. Craig Venter is a driving force in this technology which would allow us to not only print synthetic life forms, but also digitally send that across – if necessary – very long distances. Perhaps interplanetary distances. But check for yourself:

“Back in 2016, biologist Craig Venter achieved something extraordinary. He built a new species of bacteria from scratch in the lab – the simplest genetic life form known to science, made entirely through chemical synthesis of a custom-made genome.

Now, he’s unveiled a new machine that could print these synthetic life forms on demand – simply feed in a genome design, and let the ‘ink’ form the building blocks of life. The invention could see us colonise Mars with synthetic life without ever setting foot on the Red Planet, and Venter and Elon Musk have teamed up to make this happen…”

Source: This machine could print synthetic life forms on demand, and our minds are reeling – ScienceAlert