In 'Spock Must Die!', James Blish describes a scenario where a teleporter glitch creates a duplicate of Spock with reversed molecules. This concept ties into chirality, introduced by Louis Pasteur, revealing that life relies on left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars. The possibility of mirror-life forms has intrigued scientists, who considered creating mirror bacteria. However, advancements in synthetic biology have raised concerns about the dangers of such creations, forcing researchers to reconsider the implications of constructing life with reversed molecular configurations.
To survive, the second Spock was forced to synthesize mirror-image amino acids...because he could not metabolize normal ones.
Ever since the microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered this property, called chirality...science fiction has speculated about it.
Scientists are abandoning the idea of constructing mirror bacteria because of the possible catastrophic consequences.
An excess of left-handed amino acids has been found in some meteorites, which could have conditioned biology if those ingredients arrived from space.
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