Ok, before we begin, I'd like for it to be known that this comes from a near complete lack of understanding as to how cancer works, and a limited understanding of algae. Ready? Too bad, lets go!
So, from what I do understand, algae is very important. It creates somewhere around 75% of the Oxygen in the atmosphere, and is the basis of the food chain for most of our watery ecosystems (like grass is on land). Now, supposedly, there's some type of algae shortage in the world. Caused by I have no clue, and by how much I don't know, but, that's not the important thing here (my idea would still stand, regardless). And, it might be playing a part in the vast drops in marine life population across the world, in addition to all our overfishing and pollution/destruction of habitats.
Now that we've gotten all the "things" that I "know" out of the way, lets dive into my ignorance...What if we found a way to give algae cancer, as a means of creating a huge bloom in quantity? As far as I'm aware, cancer (or, maybe just some types of it) causes cells to constantly reproduce, instead of only reproducing some set amount of times, or with disregard to resources or something. As far as I am also aware, algae, or at least most forms of it, are single cell plants or plant-like things. Wouldn't this result in a huge bloom of algae? And wouldn't that, in turn, cause a huge explosion in marine life populations, starting all the way at the bottom of the chains, and a huge boost to the amount of Oxygen in the atmosphere?
So, what do you think?
Can algae even get cancer?
If it could, do you think we'd be able to find a way to do so on a grand enough scale that it would matter?
If we did, would the algae even continue to serve it's purpose?
Would the animals that feed off of it get cancer as a result, and so on, up the food chain?
I'd like to reiterate that I am not a biologist, I am not a doctor, I am not a botanist, and I am not an ecologist.
