Mirror life its dangers and benefits

[Flyaway]

It's a technology that doesn't even exist yet, but its effects could be so drastically destructive that scientists in the field are calling for it to be banned now, before it's too late.

We're talking, of course, about "mirror life" — synthetic organisms that quite literally turn natural biology on its head.

"We should choose not to build mirror life and pass laws to ensure nobody can," John Glass, a synthetic biologist who helped create the first living cell with a synthetic genome, wrote in a speculative yet terrifying piece for the Financial Times. "The question is not whether we are able to prevent this threat — it is whether we will act while we still can."

Mirror lifeforms contain DNA structures that are the mirror image to all known organisms. In all life on Earth, the DNA double helix is right-handed, meaning its strands, a sugar-phosphate backbone, twist to the right. (If you make a thumbs-up with your right hand, the vertical axis would be aligned with your thumb, while your fingers represent the curl of the spiral.) The opposite is the case for proteins, the building blocks of cells, which are left-handed.

This so-called homochirality is true for all known lifeforms. So what happens when humans engineer a synthetic organism where its DNA twists to the left, while its proteins twist to the right?

…

If it's so dangerous, then why pursue it at all? For one thing, the tech's promise in medicine almost matches its potential for destruction. Already, emerging forms of mirror proteins could be used to create more effective drugs that survive in the body longer. And so any potential laws governing the field, Glass says, would need to strike a balance between absolutely clamping down on developing mirror life while allowing synthetic biology to thrive.


"This will require precision about what research can continue and what should cease," Glass wrote. Fortunately, he observes, "we have realized these dangers well before the point of no return."

https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientist-warns-synthetic-lifeform-doom-humankind
Fermi Paradox and mirror life:

View: https://youtu.be/iANSPHdv534

 

[Justo Miranda]

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https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientist-warns-synthetic-lifeform-doom-humankind
Fermi Paradox and mirror life:

View: https://youtu.be/iANSPHdv534

In popular texts in recent years, biochirality is seen as proof of extraterrestrial life because of its ability to deflect polarized light in the opposite direction to terrestrial life. The general opinion is that a mirror organism could not devour us and neither could we, nor could an extraterrestrial colony feed on a chiral flora born on an alien planet. ¿So, what does danger consist of? Prions?

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2109210118

 

[Justo Miranda]

Chiral molecules discovered in space

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/chiral-molecules-space

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aae0328

https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/a...ule-detected-in-interstellar-space/index.html

Since the beginning of life on earth, our planet has been bombarded by countless molecules with inverted chirality and, not only have they annihilated local life but have been annihilated to the point that extremologists have not been able to find a single one.

Perhaps the alarmism is unjustified, there are many academic interests and a lot of money in biotechnology.

 

[Flyaway]

This appeared in my YT suggestions a few days ago thought I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet.

View: https://youtu.be/TU3HUqUZeYw

 

[Flyaway]

Chiral molecules discovered in space

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/chiral-molecules-space

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aae0328

https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/a...ule-detected-in-interstellar-space/index.html

Since the beginning of life on earth, our planet has been bombarded by countless molecules with inverted chirality and, not only have they annihilated local life but have been annihilated to the point that extremologists have not been able to find a single one.

Perhaps the alarmism is unjustified, there are many academic interests and a lot of money in biotechnology.

Don’t they have the same ‘twist’ as life on earth. I thought the mystery is why all life seems to turn one way but not the other.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Don’t they have the same ‘twist’ as life on earth. I thought the mystery is why all life seems to turn one way but not the other.

There is a fascinating theory that links the movement of Coriolis north of the equator with the formation of the first forms of life. It's just science fiction, but who knows?

 

[Arjen]

In popular texts in recent years, biochirality is seen as proof of extraterrestrial life because of its ability to deflect polarized light in the opposite direction to terrestrial life.

Please point me to these popular texts.

The general opinion is that a mirror organism could not devour us and neither could we

The danger referred to posits mirror micro-organisms that excrete whole new classes of toxins that our bodies have no defence mechanisms against; 'devouring' doesn't come into it. Eons of exposure to the toxins naturally occurring bacteria produce has brought forth organisms resistant to some of those nasties - but botulinum toxin, to name but one, is still particularly nasty.
Some bacteria will happily munch organic matter, inside or outside of other organisms, 1) some producing toxins, 2) others being useful in our own guts. Not an exhaustive list.
A mirror example of 1) could do all kinds of lasting damage.

There is a fascinating theory that links the movement of Coriolis north of the equator with the formation of the first forms of life. It's just science fiction, but who knows?

Whose theory? Which clues point that way?