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Scientists Warn of an 'Unprecedented Risk' From Synthetic 'Mirror Life,' Built With a Reverse Version of Natural Proteins and Sugars
smithsonian via ^ | 12/14/24 | Story by Eli Wizevich

Posted on 12/14/2024 12:43:44 PM PST by RomanSoldier19

On Thursday, a group of notable scientists, including Nobel Prize winners and global health experts, issued a warning against researchers synthesizing a type of artificial cell that could rampage through life on Earth with practically no barriers to stop it.

“Mirror cells,” as they are known, could one day compose “mirror life,” a type of synthetic organism that, on the molecular level, is the complete reverse of the life forms we know. But the 38 co-authors of the warning article published in the journal Science recommend that research into mirror life be blocked immediately, before it spirals out of control.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: death; health; mirrorcells; mirrorlife
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1 posted on 12/14/2024 12:43:44 PM PST by RomanSoldier19
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To: RomanSoldier19

Is Stephy a trans man?


2 posted on 12/14/2024 12:45:27 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: Paladin2

Doom gloom kaboom!


3 posted on 12/14/2024 12:47:21 PM PST by Right Brother
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To: Paladin2

4 posted on 12/14/2024 12:55:36 PM PST by RomanSoldier19 (Res ad Triarios venit;“We are your ghosts, in this game played by monkeys, organized by lunatics” )
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To: RomanSoldier19

That is probably why there is no other intelligent life in the universe! They all come up with dumb stuff like this and quickly kill themselves off!


5 posted on 12/14/2024 1:01:37 PM PST by Bartholomew Roberts
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To: RomanSoldier19

Mirror cells; mirror life. Anti-life forms.

Made out of the same stuff as anti-matter.

Look out into the heavens far enough, and we’ll discover the anti-universe, with abundant anti-life forms. They’re looking for something to eat and they’ve spotted Earth.

Movie next year on Netflix.


6 posted on 12/14/2024 1:04:21 PM PST by adorno ( )
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To: RomanSoldier19

The quest for eternal life may prove fatal.


7 posted on 12/14/2024 1:06:20 PM PST by Manic_Episode (Harpazo imminent. Each post may be my last. It's been real =)
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To: Paladin2

A still from The Andromeda Strain, I think.


8 posted on 12/14/2024 1:06:51 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

If it’s that dangerous, we should open a Lab in Wuhan to create a bunch of versions to see which are the most dangerous so they can develop the vaccines for it.


9 posted on 12/14/2024 1:14:23 PM PST by dgbrown
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To: adorno; All

“..... Made out of the same stuff as anti-matter. ....”

NO!!!
This is chemistry (Biochemistry)!!! Not particle physics!

A right-handed double helix of sugars, like a ladder twisted only in a certain direction. Proteins - left-handed twist for amino acids. This article talks about the opposite- left for sugars & right for proteins.

I actually thought this was old news and had already been done. Anyway, the existence such things have been known for quite a while.


10 posted on 12/14/2024 1:15:26 PM PST by Reily
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To: Right Brother

Kurt Vonnegut wrote once in a novel that mirrors were called “leaks” because the characters thought people were looking into another universe. Older people would caution children: “Careful. Don’t get too close to that leak.”


11 posted on 12/14/2024 1:49:49 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: RomanSoldier19

(Insert pic of Spock with a beard here)


12 posted on 12/14/2024 1:50:32 PM PST by aynrandfreak (Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry)
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To: Bartholomew Roberts

RE: no other intelligent life

Where exactly did you encounter the earth’s intelligent life?

((Trick question. The Answer is every day on Free Republic.))


13 posted on 12/14/2024 1:51:22 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: aynrandfreak

Can we use one of Elizabeth Warren between electrolysis appointments?


14 posted on 12/14/2024 1:52:14 PM PST by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: RomanSoldier19

Maybe Elon Musk will have set up a colony on Mars by then to save humanity.


15 posted on 12/14/2024 2:01:38 PM PST by KittyKares
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To: frank ballenger

One of my first thoughts upon seeing this article was a Kurt Vonnegut novel, too! Only I was thinking of Cat’s Cradle.


16 posted on 12/14/2024 2:04:00 PM PST by CatHerd (Whoever said "All's fair in love and war" probably never participated in either.)
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To: Reily

Sounds like “mirror life” would only be able to eat “mirror sugars” and “mirror proteins”, and thus, be safe for us.


17 posted on 12/14/2024 2:10:15 PM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Lazamataz

Yes, I swear I remember reading that someone was going to introduce a mirror sugar as a sweetener. The claim was it would taste sweet (How? “taste” is still chemistry!) but would pass right through and not add to your calorie intake.


18 posted on 12/14/2024 2:13:34 PM PST by Reily
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To: Bartholomew Roberts

So many options for eradicating life on earth.... The Great Filter.


19 posted on 12/14/2024 2:21:57 PM PST by TheDon (Resist the usurpers! Remember the J6 political prisoners!)
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To: Reily
Yes, I swear I remember reading that someone was going to introduce a mirror sugar as a sweetener. The claim was it would taste sweet (How? “taste” is still chemistry!) but would pass right through and not add to your calorie intake.

I remember 'fake fats' (mirror fats?) back in the 1980's. They tried those out with potato chips, french fries, etcetera. Turns out it gave everybody explosive diarrhea. LOL!

20 posted on 12/14/2024 2:24:05 PM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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