I know little of microbiology, but I know there is some focus on mirror bacteria. One possible pivot that could attract funding would be to look if phages can be made to track and consume mirror bacteria. This is a super speculative idea, but I think there might be some funding for defenses against mirror life. Perhaps you have already looked at the detailed report on mirror life published at the end of last year (my non-expert read was that it was believed phages would not work—but maybe it is possible to make “mirror phages” in a defense-favoring way)?
Thank you for sharing this—it’s a fascinating idea. I haven’t read the detailed report you mentioned, but I’ve followed some of the broader discussions around mirror life. You’re right that conventional phages wouldn’t work against mirror bacteria because of the chirality mismatch. In theory, only “mirror phages” built from mirror-biological components could infect them.
The idea of mirror phages is interesting because, if mirror organisms were ever discovered or engineered, they might be immune to all our natural defenses and medical tools. In that context, mirror phages could represent one of the very few biological defenses available. Exploring that possibility would also stretch our understanding of what life could look like beyond Earth, which is scientifically exciting.
My concern, however, is twofold. First, the technical barrier is enormous—we don’t currently have the capacity to build entire mirror-biological systems. Second, and more importantly, creating self-replicating mirror entities—whether bacteria or phages—would carry profound risks. Once released, they would operate on completely different biochemistry, outside the checks and balances of our ecosystems. We could neither predict nor easily contain their behavior, because no existing biological process in our world could break them down. That means even if they posed no direct harm to us, they could persist indefinitely, occupying niches, competing for resources, or interacting with the environment in ways we cannot anticipate.
Another layer of complexity is that phages are natural genetic transducers—they move genes between organisms. If mirror phages were ever created, we cannot be certain how they might interact with ordinary bacteria. While direct gene transfer across chiral systems seems unlikely, biology has a way of surprising us, and even small, indirect interactions could have unforeseen consequences. This uncertainty makes their study both intriguing and potentially risky.
So while the concept of mirror phages is highly speculative, it is also deeply double-edged: they could be our only defense against mirror pathogens, but they also raise the possibility of introducing a form of life that sits entirely beyond our current safety frame
Hi Nnaemeka, yeah I totally agree about not doing something potentially advancing the creation of dangerous mirror organisms. I am commenting just to iterate what I said about “defense-favoring”—I know little of microbiology but thought I would mention just in case there might be some way to very lightly modify an existing non-mirror phage to “hunt and kill” mirror microbes (e.g. just altering their “tracking” and “ingestion” system). But this is probably an incredibly naive idea but thought I would put it out there as there is a whole chapter on phages in the mirror bio report. Also, my impression from the report is that there is scientific uncertainty about how bad mirror bio would be. It might be worth solidifying this by e.g. taking single parts of plant or human immune systems and exposing them only to simple, single mirror molecules that would likely be present on mirror organisms. This might show definitely that mirror bio might be catastrophic. But I would do any such work in really tight cooperation with the Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund and others and definitely not act unilaterally. It might at least be worth it to read at least the most relevant parts of the mirror bio report if you might have time.
I know little of microbiology, but I know there is some focus on mirror bacteria. One possible pivot that could attract funding would be to look if phages can be made to track and consume mirror bacteria. This is a super speculative idea, but I think there might be some funding for defenses against mirror life. Perhaps you have already looked at the detailed report on mirror life published at the end of last year (my non-expert read was that it was believed phages would not work—but maybe it is possible to make “mirror phages” in a defense-favoring way)?
Thank you for sharing this—it’s a fascinating idea. I haven’t read the detailed report you mentioned, but I’ve followed some of the broader discussions around mirror life. You’re right that conventional phages wouldn’t work against mirror bacteria because of the chirality mismatch. In theory, only “mirror phages” built from mirror-biological components could infect them.
The idea of mirror phages is interesting because, if mirror organisms were ever discovered or engineered, they might be immune to all our natural defenses and medical tools. In that context, mirror phages could represent one of the very few biological defenses available. Exploring that possibility would also stretch our understanding of what life could look like beyond Earth, which is scientifically exciting.
My concern, however, is twofold. First, the technical barrier is enormous—we don’t currently have the capacity to build entire mirror-biological systems. Second, and more importantly, creating self-replicating mirror entities—whether bacteria or phages—would carry profound risks. Once released, they would operate on completely different biochemistry, outside the checks and balances of our ecosystems. We could neither predict nor easily contain their behavior, because no existing biological process in our world could break them down. That means even if they posed no direct harm to us, they could persist indefinitely, occupying niches, competing for resources, or interacting with the environment in ways we cannot anticipate.
Another layer of complexity is that phages are natural genetic transducers—they move genes between organisms. If mirror phages were ever created, we cannot be certain how they might interact with ordinary bacteria. While direct gene transfer across chiral systems seems unlikely, biology has a way of surprising us, and even small, indirect interactions could have unforeseen consequences. This uncertainty makes their study both intriguing and potentially risky.
So while the concept of mirror phages is highly speculative, it is also deeply double-edged: they could be our only defense against mirror pathogens, but they also raise the possibility of introducing a form of life that sits entirely beyond our current safety frame
Hi Nnaemeka, yeah I totally agree about not doing something potentially advancing the creation of dangerous mirror organisms. I am commenting just to iterate what I said about “defense-favoring”—I know little of microbiology but thought I would mention just in case there might be some way to very lightly modify an existing non-mirror phage to “hunt and kill” mirror microbes (e.g. just altering their “tracking” and “ingestion” system). But this is probably an incredibly naive idea but thought I would put it out there as there is a whole chapter on phages in the mirror bio report. Also, my impression from the report is that there is scientific uncertainty about how bad mirror bio would be. It might be worth solidifying this by e.g. taking single parts of plant or human immune systems and exposing them only to simple, single mirror molecules that would likely be present on mirror organisms. This might show definitely that mirror bio might be catastrophic. But I would do any such work in really tight cooperation with the Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund and others and definitely not act unilaterally. It might at least be worth it to read at least the most relevant parts of the mirror bio report if you might have time.