The Dangers Of Mirror Cell Research

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, life takes this to the extreme. All of the DNA in earthly living things twists to the right, whereas the protein building blocks favor a kind of left-handed chemistry. But in recent years, scientists have worked toward a kind of mirror version of life. The technology to make mirror life likely won't exist for at least a decade. Still, a group of concerned scientists published a 299-page technical report calling for a stop to the science. New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer explains how a mirror microbe could wreak havoc on life on Earth in the future.

Check out the full technical report and Carl's full article.

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0:18.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:23.4	So I'm red-handed.
0:25.7	Not everyone is.
0:26.9	My whole life I've heard the woes of my left-handed friends that the world is just not made for them.
0:31.6	And recently, I learned about a whole new level to that.
0:35.9	Handedness affects the very building blocks of life.
0:39.3	All of life on Earth picks aside. The building blocks for our DNA, they're all right-handed.
0:46.4	They could be left-handed, but they're not. And that's just a rule across all of life.
0:52.2	That's Carl Zimmer. He's an author of many books on science
0:55.7	and a reporter for the New York Times.
0:57.9	I'd say my beat is life,
0:59.6	basically what it is and what it could become.
1:03.5	This handiness of molecules and life
1:05.9	is called chirality.
1:07.8	It's the mirror image of a molecule,
1:10.0	like how your face is flipped in the mirror.
1:12.8	On earth, all the DNA we see, aside from some transient exceptions, all the helixes
1:18.4	turn to the right. And so far, scientists haven't seen any evidence that life is ambidextrous
	...

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