最新麻豆视频

Life

The story of mirror life: From intriguing idea to unprecedented threat

Grave warnings have been issued about the dangers of creating life forms using mirror-image molecules. How worried should we be?

By Michael Marshall

20 February 2025

最新麻豆视频. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Ibrahim Rayintakath

In the coming decades, we might figure out how to make an entirely new kind of life: a mirror cell, in which every molecule is the mirror image of those found in normal cells. Such reversed cells have probably never existed on our planet in its 4.5-billion-year history. Yet we could one day make them 鈥 perhaps as a way to make new drugs, or simply out of pure scientific curiosity about the origins and evolution of life.

But should we? According to a coalition of synthetic biologists and biosafety specialists, the answer is a resounding 鈥渘o鈥. Mirror life, they…

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with 最新麻豆视频 events and special offers.

Sign up

To continue reading, today with our introductory offers

or

Existing subscribers

Sign in to your account
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop