Mirror Life - The Next Great Threat

Never heard of this before but the writers of this paper are screaming from the rooftops so it seems we might want to listen since what they are saying makes a whole lot of sense.

sounds like an ultimate biological weapon

Scientists Call for a Global Pause on Creating “Mirror Life” Before It’s Too Late: “The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented”

On a molecular level, life as we know it has a surprising bias. The building blocks of life — DNA, RNA, and proteins — have a “handedness,” like our left and right hands. For reasons still unclear, nature almost exclusively uses right-handed DNA and left-handed proteins. But what if science flipped the script?

In labs around the world, scientists have tinkered with this idea, crafting mirror versions of life’s essential molecules. These synthetic creations could revolutionize therapies for diseases and contamination-resistant manufacturing. At the same time, reversing a molecule’s handedness could cause untold harm.

This week, nearly 40 scientists — including two Nobel laureates — raised a chilling alarm. The creation of “mirror life” — synthetic organisms made of these reversed molecules — could lead to catastrophic consequences. Their nearly 300-page report, published in Science, is unequivocal: research on mirror microbes should stop before it’s too late.

“The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented,” said Professor Vaughn Cooper, a microbiologist at the University of Pittsburgh. “Mirror bacteria would likely evade many human, animal, and plant immune system responses and in each case would cause lethal infections that would spread without check.”

 

not sure I do either, maybe @chemgator or someone who understands biology can tell me how this doesn't sound like anti-matter to my dna.

when a couple of Nobel laureates are standing on the hill yelling...

Mirror bacteria would likely evade many human, animal, and plant immune system responses and in each case would cause lethal infections that would spread without check.

I'm simple, but I think I can follow that...now..is the source qualified?