Nobel Prize-winning scientist reveals the gruesome way deadly 'mirror bacteria' could take over the human body - as scientists call for an urgent halt on all research on it
3 days, 7 hours ago

Nobel Prize-winning scientist reveals the gruesome way deadly 'mirror bacteria' could take over the human body - as scientists call for an urgent halt on all research on it

Daily Mail  

The idea of a deadly artificial bacteria taking over the human body might sound like something from the next season of The Last of Us. It might sound like something out of The Last of Us but scientists now warn that a deadly 'mirror bacteria' could take over the human body A Nobel Prize-winning scientist has revealed how deadly 'mirror bacteria', a form of synthetic life made of mirrored biological molecules, could create deadly infections that our bodies would be unable to defend against In all life on Earth, there are a number of molecules which have a property of handedness or 'chirality'. Professor Gregory Winter, a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist from the University of Cambridge, told MailOnline that infections of mirror bacteria could block blood vessels leading to strokes, circulation failure, or wounds that are unable to heal What is mirror life? 'For example, human white cells in the blood have evolved to recognise and digest invading bacteria, but the "left-handed" enzymes involved would struggle to digest “right-handed” proteins of the mirror bacteria,' says Professor Winter. An outbreak of a mirror bacteria could be even more disasterous than the diseases imagined by apocolyptic films like Contagion since the bacteria would affect all life on Earth, not just humans However, mirror bacteria wouldn't need to specialise to infect any particular species and could spread through any organism on Earth.

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Mirror bacteria may constitute ‘radical departure from known life,’ scientists warn
1 week ago

Mirror bacteria may constitute ‘radical departure from known life,’ scientists warn

CNN  

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. While the science and technology necessary to create mirror bacteria in a laboratory is a decade or more away, the scientists argued that the possibly lethal risks posed by this new field of research are “unprecedented” and “overlooked.” “Driven by curiosity and plausible applications, some researchers had begun work toward creating lifeforms …

What is ‘mirror life’ and why have scientists opposed it?
1 week, 1 day ago

What is ‘mirror life’ and why have scientists opposed it?

The Hindu  

In a mirror, left and right become swapped. Scientists have been making and studying enantiomers in the lab for a long time, but recently a few of them have started on the road to creating ‘mirror microbes’ -- synthetic bacteria whose building blocks are enantiomers of their natural counterparts. “Our analysis suggests that mirror bacteria would likely evade many immune …

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