Posted on 12/13/2024 8:48:04 AM PST by algore
Leading scientists have issued an urgent warning over the 'unprecedented' risk posed by a lab-made life which could wipe out mankind.
So-called 'mirror life' are synthetic organisms that are constructed out of mirrored versions of the molecules found in nature.
Experts warn that these mirror organisms would be 'invisible' to life on Earth, allowing them to slip past the immune defences of all known organisms.
If mirror bacteria were to escape from the lab, there would be nothing to prevent them from establishing themselves in the wild and threatening plants, animals, and humans with lethal infections.
The creation of mirror bacteria is at least a decade away but, in a 300-page technical review published in Science, the authors note that rapid progress is already being made.
scientists believe it is possible to create an organism in which all the biological molecules are mirrored.
What would make this so risky is that life on Earth has only evolved to deal with one shape of molecule.
Co-author Professor Gregory Winter, a Nobel prize-winning biologist from the University of Cambridge, told MailOnline: 'The risk of mirror life, in particular mirror bacteria, is that living organisms would not recognise their mirror counterparts as “foreign” and would not have the natural defences to protect themselves from attack by them.
'We cannot rule out a scenario in which a mirror bacterium acts as an invasive species across many ecosystems, causing pervasive lethal infections in a substantial fraction of plant and animal species, including humans.'
Even if humans do find a way to defend themselves from this new threat, mirror bacteria could still destabilise large parts of the world's ecosystem.
'If major food crops were susceptible, the impact would be devastating — alongside the other effects.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
hold my beer.
Gosh. First it was the Large Hadron Collider, then ‘Gray Goo’; and now this. We keep coming up with new ways to do ourselves in...
Common SciFi theme.
AI will combine with it and wipe us out.
So, Dr. Fauci is probably already engineering these in China...
Scientist... They’re trying their best to eventually kill us all.
No problem, just show the mirror bacteria the mirror.
If they wipe us out, I vote for a quick death
Years ago there used to be a slogan for some company:
Progress through science! I believe it was BEFORE TV so it was radio. Many years ago...GE? Westinghouse?
It was probably this:
“”The phrase “Better Living Through Chemistry” (BLTC) is a variant of a DuPont advertising slogan, “Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry”. DuPont adopted it in 1935 “”
Interesting, but unlikely. Regular bacteria feed on regular
food, not mirror image food. Take glucose for example. D-glucose is regular, L-glucose is mirror image. “D-Bacteria” need D-glucose and can not live on L-glucose. One would assume the opposite is true and L-Bacteria would need L-glucose.
Cell biology ping
This time, AI might just help it along.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should
Why would anyone want or fund such an insane project? This is truly mad scientist stuff.
What is the purpose of making left handed DNA and right handed proteins?
Sometimes scientists shouldn’t ask “if we can do it” but instead “should we do it”.
“grey goo” is pretty far up the tech tree, even today. Its gonna be a huge task to create this monster.
“mirror” bacteria probably is just as far off. I doubt the ten year timeline. It requires, it seems, detailed reengineering of complex natural systems. Its not just a genetic tweak.
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