AI Summary
5 min readThe mirror life that could end the world
In 2019, synthetic biologist Kate Adamala was excited about a new project that seemed to push the boundaries of what biology could do. She wanted to build a cell where every molecule was the mirror version of its natural counterpart—DNA that twisted left instead of right, proteins built from mirror amino acids. "I was really invested in that project," she says. "I was really excited about the possibilities of it." Within a few years, she had abandoned it entirely, convinced that creating such a cell could mean "the end of life on Earth as we know it."
The strange science of handedness
The story begins with a quirk of chemistry that scientists still don't fully understand. Many of the molecules essential for life—DNA, RNA, proteins—have a property called chirality, meaning they can exist in two mirror-image shapes, like left and right hands. In every living thing on Earth, these molecules appear in only one version: DNA always twists to the right, proteins always use left-handed amino acids. No one knows why. "Homo chirality, or the same handedness of biology, is still one of the biggest mysteries in science today," Adamala explains.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:00) **Inventing Life in the Lab** - Kate Adamala describes her work building synthetic cells from biological parts, explaining she is "expanding on the creation" within the laws of physics.
- 2 (03:40) **The Darker Side of Synthetic Biology** - The episode pivots from the utopian potential of synthetic cells to focus on the unknown risks when scientists write their own rules for life.
- 3 (04:48) **The Allure of Mirror Life** - Kate Adamala explains her early-career project to create "mirror life," cells with molecules of opposite handedness to all natural life.
- 4 (12:24) **The Gut Check on Mirror Life** - David Relman, a microbiologist and threat assessor, is invited to evaluate the potential dangers of mirror life research.
- 5 (16:29) **The Ultimate Invasive Species** - David Relman realizes the catastrophic implications: a mirror bacterium would be an unstoppable, ever-growing threat to all life on Earth.
- 6 (19:26) **The Weight of the Discovery** - David Relman describes the terrifying realization that humans could create something that threatens all life as we know it.
- 7 (20:55) **Kate's Reversal** - Kate Adamala joins the coalition of scientists investigating the risks and comes to the same terrifying conclusion as David.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
When scientists write their own rules for life, how do they know what could go wrong before it’s too late?
This is the final episode of our new three-part series, Life from Scratch.
Guests: Kate Adamala, associate professor at the University of Minnesota; David Relman, professor at Stanford University; John Glass, leader of the JCVI Synthetic Biology Group.
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