167:). There is a small alteration of weak interactions under reflection, which can produce very small corrections, but these corrections are many orders of magnitude lower than thermal noise—almost certainly too tiny to alter any biochemistry. However, there are also theories that weak interactions can have a greater effect on longer nucleic acids or protein chains, resulting in much less efficient conversion of mirror ribozymes or enzymes than normal ribozymes or enzymes.
121:. It is not known whether homochirality emerged before or after life, whether the building blocks of life must have this particular chirality, or indeed whether life needs to be homochiral. Protein chains built from amino acids of mixed chirality tend not to fold or function as catalysts, but mirror-image proteins have been constructed that work the same but on substrates of opposite handedness.
25:
233:, for which tests showed that it tastes likes standard sugar, but not being metabolized the same way. However, it was never marketed due to excessive manufacturing costs. More recent research allows cheap production with high yields, however the authors state that it is not usable as a sweetener due to laxative effects.
159:
Reconstructing regular lifeforms in mirror-image form, using the mirror-image (chiral) reflection of their cellular components, could be achieved by substituting left-handed amino acids with right-handed ones, in order to create mirror reflections of all regular proteins. Analogously, we could get
222:
in Berlin. It uses laborious chemical synthesis to make mirror-image forms of short strands of DNA or RNA called aptamers, which bind to therapeutic targets such as proteins in the body to block their activity. The firm has several mirror-aptamer candidates in human trials for diseases including
96:
Many of the essential molecules for life on Earth can exist in two mirror-image forms, referred to as "left-handed" and "right-handed" where handed refers to direction in which polarized light skews when beamed through a pure solution of the molecule, but living organisms do not use both.
308:, the planet Ilus has indigenous life with partially-mirrored chirality. This renders human colonists unable to digest native flora and fauna, and greatly complicates conventional farming. Consequently, the colonists have to rely upon hydroponic farming and food importation.
223:
cancer; the idea is that their efficacy might be improved because they aren't degraded by the body's enzymes. A process to replicate mirror-image DNA could offer a much easier route to making the aptamers, says Sven
Klussmann, Noxxon Pharma's chief scientific officer."
259:
by James Blish, the science officer of the USS Enterprise is replicated in mirror form by a transporter mishap. He locks himself in the sick bay where he is able to synthesize mirror forms of basic nutrients needed for his survival.
319:, an antagonist, Otto, nicknamed the "Mirror Man", is revealed to be a genetically-engineered mirror human. He views other humans with disdain and causes them to feel an inexplicable repulsion by his very presence.
170:
Mirror animals would need to feed on reflected food, produced by reflected plants. Mirror viruses would not be able to attack natural cells, just as natural viruses would not be able to attack mirror cells.
160:
reflected sugars, DNA, etc., on which reflected enzymes would work perfectly. Finally we would get a normally functioning mirror reflection of a natural organism—a chiral counterpart organism.
182:, could take over Earth's ecosystem due to lack of natural enemies, disturbing the bottom of the food chain by producing mirror versions of the required sugars. Some bacteria can digest
246:", from The Collected Stories. In this story, a physical accident transforms a person into his mirror image, speculatively explained by travel through a fourth physical dimension.
88:. Although this alternative life form has not been discovered in nature, efforts to build a mirror-image version of biology's molecular machinery are already underway.
263:
An alien machine that reverses chirality, and a blood-symbiont that functions properly only when in one chirality, were central to Roger
Zelazny's 1976 novel
343:– A hypothetical form of matter that interacts only weakly with normal matter, which could form mirror planets, potentially inhabited by mirror matter life.
740:
Wang, Zimou; Xu, Weiliang; Liu, Lei; Zhu, Ting F. (2016). "A synthetic molecular system capable of mirror-image genetic replication and transcription".
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152:) of life's building-block molecules, in place of the standard ones. Some proteins have been synthesized in mirror-image versions, including
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in 2013, may lead to the possibility of fully synthesizing a living cell from small molecules, where we could use mirror-image versions (
84:) is a hypothetical form of life with mirror-reflected molecular building blocks. The possibility of mirror life was first discussed by
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Acevedo-Rocha, Carlos G. (2015). "The synthetic nature of biology". In Hagen, Kristin; Engelhard, Margret; Toepfer, Georg (eds.).
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Xu, Yuan; Zhu, Ting F. (2022-10-28). "Mirror-image T7 transcription of chirally inverted ribosomal and functional RNAs".
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series, chirality of amino acids in foodstuffs is discussed often in both dialogue and encyclopedia files.
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Hypothetically, it should be possible to recreate an entire ecosystem from the bottom up, in mirror form.
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218:): "That makes mirror-image biochemistry a potentially lucrative business. One company that hopes so is
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Martinez, RF (5 December 2013). "Short and sweet: (D)-glucose to (L)-glucose and (L)-glucuronic acid".
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1170:"FANTASTIC FOUR BY RYAN NORTH VOL. 1: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR? | mitpressbookstore"
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Ambivalences of
Creating Life: Societal and Philosophical Dimensions of Synthetic Biology
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186:; exceptions like this would give some rare lifeforms an unanticipated advantage.
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Mirror life presents potential dangers. For example, a chiral-mirror version of
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The creation of a mirror human is the basis of 1950 Arthur C. Clarke's story "
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Direct application of mirror-chiral organisms can be mass production of
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899:"Could the replication of mirror DNA teach something about chiral …"
688:"Must the Molecules of Life Always be Left-Handed or Right-Handed?"
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Regenesis how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves
114:
394:"Xenobiology: A new form of life as the ultimate biosafety tool"
282:, some lifeforms have evolved to use the right-handed isomer of
110:
106:
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719:"Mirror-image cells could transform science - or kill us all"
36:
personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay
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198:(mirror-image) of molecules produced by normal life.
518:Siegel, J.S. (1992-11-20). "Left-handed comments".
178:, which only needs achiral nutrients and light for
468:"The one and only popular synthetic biology book"
850:Bouchiat, Marie-Anne; Bouchiat, Claude (1997).
928:"Mirror-image enzyme copies looking-glass DNA"
368:"New twist found in the story of life's start"
8:
1049:"Editions of Spock Must Die! by James Blish"
1122:"Cibola Burn (Expanse Series #4)|Paperback"
725:. Vol. 18, no. 12. Archived from
661:Plaxco, Kevin W.; Michael, Michael (2011).
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65:Learn how and when to remove this message
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101:are exclusively composed of left-handed
991:Angewandte Chemie International Edition
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686:Sedbrook, Danielle (28 July 2016).
663:Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction
366:Singer, Emily (26 November 2014).
298:In the 2014 science fiction novel
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466:Sawyer, Eric (11 January 2013).
23:
665:. JHU Press. pp. 140–141.
856:Reports on Progress in Physics
627:"Building a parallel universe"
571:"A Conversation with Ting Zhu"
117:. This phenomenon is known as
1:
926:Peplow, Mark (16 May 2016).
906:Topological Geometrodynamics
142:partially synthetic bacteria
976:A natural way to stay sweet
876:10.1088/0034-4885/60/11/004
852:"Parity Violation in atoms"
569:Peplow, Mark (2018-07-25).
497:. Springer. pp. 9–54.
322:The concept is used during
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587:10.1021/acscentsci.8b00432
441:Church, George M. (2014).
216:-ribonucleic acid aptamers
113:contain only right-handed
1174:mitpressbookstore.mit.edu
953:10.1038/nature.2016.19918
445:. New York: Basic Books.
347:Peptidomimetic#D-peptides
272:On the titular planet of
229:, enantiomer of standard
16:Hypothetical form of life
392:Markus, Schmidt (2010).
1211:Hypothetical life forms
813:10.1126/science.abm0646
717:Bohannon, John (2010).
540:10.1126/science.1455216
1073:"Doorways in the Sand"
1003:10.1002/anie.201309073
410:10.1002/bies.200900147
45:by rewriting it in an
1120:Noble, Barnes &.
266:Doorways in the Sand
138:synthesizing viruses
1097:"Grass (Arbai, #1)"
944:2016Natur.533..303P
868:1997RPPh...60.1351B
805:2022Sci...378..405X
754:2016NatCh...8..698W
575:ACS Central Science
532:1992Sci...258.1289B
190:Direct applications
146:synthetic ribosomes
1126:Barnes & Noble
1013:. Epub 2013 Dec 5.
762:10.1038/nchem.2517
474:. Nature Education
47:encyclopedic style
34:is written like a
1206:Synthetic biology
1053:www.goodreads.com
1025:"Technical Error"
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336:Xenobiology
301:Cibola Burn
292:Mass Effect
196:enantiomers
150:enantiomers
125:The concept
103:amino acids
78:Mirror life
1195:Categories
1180:2023-10-27
1155:2023-10-27
1131:2023-10-27
1106:2023-10-27
1082:2023-10-27
1058:2023-10-27
1034:2023-10-27
644:2023-10-27
353:References
324:Ryan North
238:In fiction
165:P-symmetry
154:polymerase
1201:Chirality
1150:Goodreads
1101:Goodreads
1077:Goodreads
1029:Goodreads
884:250910046
837:253183402
821:0036-8075
770:1755-4330
639:1357-0978
595:2374-7943
548:0036-8075
398:BioEssays
251:Star Trek
227:L-Glucose
184:L-glucose
156:in 2016.
1011:24310928
962:27193657
829:36302022
778:27325097
631:Wired UK
613:30062104
472:Scitable
428:20217844
330:See also
209:Aptamers
99:Proteins
940:Bibcode
911:27 July
864:Bibcode
801:Bibcode
793:Science
750:Bibcode
604:6062833
556:1455218
528:Bibcode
520:Science
419:2909387
289:In the
284:alanine
231:glucose
136:, like
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478:8 May
377:8 May
279:Grass
1007:PMID
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