Jason Crawford, author of the article 'Biological risk from the mirror world,' discusses the alarming possibilities of mirror life—organisms with reversed chirality that could pose a grave threat to our ecosystems. He explains how mirror bacteria may evade detection, potentially disrupting life as we know it. Crawford emphasizes the importance of awareness and proactive measures to combat these risks, while also offering a balanced view on the timeline and our capacity to respond to this distant yet serious threat.
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insights INSIGHT
Mirror Life Threat
Mirror life, with opposite chirality, could exist.
This life would interact strangely with Earth life due to incompatible chirality.
insights INSIGHT
Mirror Bacteria Threat
Mirror bacteria could evade our immune systems due to their mirrored biomolecules.
Unchecked growth could cause sepsis-like conditions.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Defense Against Mirror Bacteria
Basic hygiene and medical interventions would still be effective against mirror bacteria.
Protecting the entire ecosystem would be near impossible.
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A new article in Science Policy Forum voices concern about a particular line of biological research which, if successful in the long term, could eventually create a grave threat to humanity and to most life on Earth.
Fortunately, the threat is distant, and avoidable—but only if we have common knowledge of it.
What follows is an explanation of the threat, what we can do about it, and my comments.
Background: chirality
Glucose, a building block of sugars and starches, looks like this:
Adapted from WikimediaBut there is also a molecule that is the exact mirror-image of glucose. It is called simply L-glucose (in contrast, the glucose in our food and bodies is sometimes called D-glucose):
L-glucose, the mirror twin of normal D-glucose. Adapted from WikimediaThis is not just the same molecule flipped around, or looked at from the other side: it's inverted, as your left hand is vs. your [...]
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Outline:
(00:29) Background: chirality
(01:41) Mirror life
(02:47) The threat
(05:06) Defense would be difficult and severely limited
(06:09) Are we sure?
(07:47) Mirror life is a long-term goal of some scientific research
(08:57) What to do?
(10:22) We have time to react
(10:54) The far future
(12:25) Optimism, pessimism, and progress
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