Reacción a "More than thirty scientists warn in Science about the dangers of synthesizing 'mirror bacteria'"

This article is yet another example of the need to act responsibly with respect to the possible innovations that may result from scientific advances. At times we scientists have not acted in a coordinated and publicly visible way (usually not for lack of will) in anticipating and avoiding the risks of the applications that may arise from science, the clearest example being the development of nuclear weapons in the middle of the 20th century. Since then, the scientific community has acted more stringently, the best example being the 1975 Asilomar conference, when the scientific community self-imposed restrictions on the use of recombinant DNA. Since then, such actions have been attempted periodically, with varying degrees of success, in areas such as synthetic biology, human cloning, and artificial intelligence.

In the specific case of specular biology mentioned in the article, it is certainly still a mystery why life on this planet has chosen a particular symmetry in its fundamental molecules, and it is possible to think that another form of life could develop using the opposite symmetry (see for example the episode “Mirror, mirror” from the 2nd season of the original Star Trek series, 1967). In principle this new life form could interact little with the existing one (for example it could be that mirror pathogens would not be effective in invading common hosts), but not being sure it is very convenient to be forewarned and establish protocols that prevent harmful situations in the future. Not designing this type of life is not an option if we want to continue to understand the universe better (to improve the health of our planet and its residents), but not thinking responsibly about the consequences is not an option either.