Scientists: Creating “mirror life” could destroy humanity

The world’s leading scientists have issued an urgent warning about the unprecedented risks of artificially created life that could destroy humanity. We’re talking about so-called “mirror life,” synthetic organisms created from mirror versions of molecules found in nature.

Experts warn that these “critters” will be invisible to life on Earth, allowing them to bypass the immune defenses of all known organisms. If mirror bacteria were to escape the laboratory, there would be nothing to stop them from establishing themselves in the wild and threatening plants, animals, and humans with deadly infections.

The creation of mirror bacteria is at least a decade away, but in a 300-page white paper published in the journal Science, the authors note that rapid progress has already been made. A group of 38 Nobel laureates and other experts, including those who have previously tried to create mirror life, are now calling for a halt to all new research.

Just as the left hand is a mirror image of the right hand, many biological molecules have left and right mirror molecules. This feature is very important in terms of biology because it does not change from species to species. But as far as scientists can tell, the right-handedness of our DNA is an evolutionary coincidence, and there is no reason why life could not consist of mirror fragments.

So, although mirror life cannot evolve from life as we know it, scientists believe it is possible to create an organism in which all biological molecules are mirror images. The riskiness of the situation comes from the fact that life on Earth has evolved to deal only with uniform molecules.

Although mirror bacteria have some possible benefits, such as biodrug synthesis and medical applications, the authors argue that the risks are not worth it.

We previously wrote that Russian scientists want to teach telepathy to animals. Read about it here.