The Risks of Mirror Life - Webinar

The Risks of Mirror Life by Wilmot James and James Smith.

Leading scientists recently warned of the unprecedented risks of “mirror bacteria”, synthetic bacteria in which all biomolecules have reversed chirality. Mirror bacteria would likely evade many immune recognition mechanisms and result in other aspects of immunity being impaired, potentially leading to lethal infections in humans, non-human animals and plants. Mirror bacteria would be resistant to infection by bacteriophage, and likely also to predators that typically control bacterial populations. They might therefore disrupt ecosystems and cause severe and irreversible public health and environmental consequences. Containment, countermeasures, and the potential for misuse, all present major challenges. A recent paper in Science calls for further discussion on this topic, and argues that mirror life should not be created.

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