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THE STRANGE NEW ORGANISMS SCIENTISTS ARE BEGGING EACH OTHER NOT TO BUILD – BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/mirror-life-experiment-dangers
Many biochemicals (DNA, proteins and sugars – the most basic components of life) can exist in two mirror-image forms, but more complex living organisms (cells, for example) overwhelmingly exist in only one form. Since the dawn of time, life began working in a certain ‘chirality’ and has stuck with it. It’s as if complex living structures are all ‘right-handed’, but the simpler components – the ingredients – that combine to make them can be either right- or left-handed.
Given that our immune systems have never been exposed to anything like mirror life before, we could be extremely vulnerable to infection by a mirror microorganism – a bacterium, say – should it ever be created and released.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/mirror-life-experiment-dangers
Many biochemicals (DNA, proteins and sugars – the most basic components of life) can exist in two mirror-image forms, but more complex living organisms (cells, for example) overwhelmingly exist in only one form. Since the dawn of time, life began working in a certain ‘chirality’ and has stuck with it. It’s as if complex living structures are all ‘right-handed’, but the simpler components – the ingredients – that combine to make them can be either right- or left-handed.
Given that our immune systems have never been exposed to anything like mirror life before, we could be extremely vulnerable to infection by a mirror microorganism – a bacterium, say – should it ever be created and released.
