Life is remarkably diverse. When you look around the world, you can find such astounding differences between each lifeform. Massive whales and Giant sequoias down to the smallest of microscopic organisms, and everything in between. It is almost hard to believe that, other than simply being living things, all life has anything in common.

The fact is, however, that at its core, all living things have remarkably similar DNA and proteins. All DNA, for example, has a right-handed twist to it. The iconic DNA double helix bends around itself to the right whether you are looking at plants, animals, or anything else. Also, all proteins, have a left handed twist to them.

So far as we know, there are no exceptions to this.

With that knowledge, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that some researchers think to themselves…But what if it were the opposite? Well, thinking about possibilities is fun and good, but thanks to rapidly advancing technologies, creating DNA that twists to the left and proteins that twist to the right could go from being a thought experiment to being a reality.

What’s the big deal?

Well, according to dozens of prominent scientists, it might be the biggest deal of all time. Life made with reversed DNA and protein (dubbed ‘Mirror Life’) could wipe out all life on the planet.

How could this be?

John Glass is a synthetic biologist who was one of the people who helped to create the very first living cell that had a synthetic genome, so he knows what he is talking about. He explains the problem in a piece he wrote for the Financial Times:

“To the best of our knowledge, our immune systems produce very weak antibody responses against mirror molecules, if any. Having even one immune deficiency can cause a patient to die of overwhelming bacterial infections; a mirror bacterial infection might be like having many immune deficiencies at once.” He went on to say, “Contaminated areas could become irreversibly uninhabitable, compromising our agriculture and natural world. Huge numbers of people, animals and plants could be wiped out, with some driven to extinction.”

So yes, it really is that serious.

Fortunately, the technology is not yet to the point where it would even be possible to create mirror life. By most estimates, it won’t be possible for another ten years at the earliest. In June of 2025, however, a group of more than 150 ethicists and scientists came together at a conference to say that steps need to be taken to ensure that nobody ever attempts to create this type of mirror life.

Their hope is that laws will be put in place that ensure nobody anywhere in the world attempts to create this potentially devastating type of life. Getting ahead of the problem is extremely important since trying to play catch up on an issue of this magnitude is impossible.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.