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What are 'mirror cells' and why do some scientists warn against creating them?

Scientists can make mirror molecules in the lab, but are still at least a decade away from creating a mirror cell.
Alena Butusava/Getty Images
Scientists can make mirror molecules in the lab, but are still at least a decade away from creating a mirror cell.

For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, earthly life takes this to the extreme. All of the DNA in living things twists to the right, whereas the protein building blocks favor a kind of left-handed chemistry.

The rules of life are based on this chemistry.

In recent years, scientists have worked toward a kind of mirror version of life. Currently, the technology doesn't exist to make mirror life at the cellular level — and likely won't for at least a decade. Still, a group of scientists is concerned enough about the possibility that they've published a 299-page technical report calling for a stop to the science.

Check out Carl's full article.

Curious about other controversial research? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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This episode was produced by Jessica Yung and Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. The audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Regina G. Barber
Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.
Jessica Yung
Jessica (she/her) is a producer for the Short Wave. She got her start in radio as a producer at Gimlet's narrative technology podcast Reply All, working on stories about QAnon, video games, cryptic tweets, and more. For the past two years, she has taught podcast production to high schoolers at Harlem Children's Zone, where she guided her students through making personal pieces about topics like jumping the MTA turnstile and complicated relationships with parents. Before she came to radio, she worked in print media, through various jobs at literary magazines and book publishers.
Rebecca Ramirez (she/her) is the founding producer of NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. It's a meditation in how to be a Swiss Army Knife, in that it involves a little of everything — background research, finding and booking sources, interviewing guests, writing, cutting the tape, editing, scoring ... you get the idea.
Berly McCoy
Kimberly (Berly) McCoy (she/her) is an assistant producer for NPR's science podcast, Short Wave. The podcast tells stories about science and scientists, in all the forms they take.
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