When you look in a mirror, the reflection is fundamentally you, but with a perfect reversal of all your features. This illustrates a phenomenon we also see in the tiny world of molecules.
Some molecules exist as mirror images of themselves, known as “enantiomers”, that can’t be superimposed on one another. This concept is known as chirality, or “handedness”. It’s important because mirror images of the same molecules can have completely different effects and functions in biology.
Writing in the journal Science, a group of 40 renowned scientists have warned that within the next decade, it may be possible to create entire mirror-image life forms made up of these enantiomers — specifically, microbial life such as bacteria. This poses real dangers, they argue.
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