51�Թ�

Let’s be clear: like science fiction, mirror bacteria — full mirror organisms capable of self-replicating and taking on all of our immune systems — don’t exist yet in the real world.

But mirror bacteria, which would be living organisms capable of self-replicating, not just little bits of protein, are what Kay and his fellow scientists are concerned about.

Venter replicated the DNA of a bacterium in 2008 and in 2010 announced the creation of a self-replicating synthetic genome, or DNA, in a bacterium taken from a different species, spurring a bioethics investigation of the developing field of synthetic biology by then-President Obama that identified limited risks.

Curiously, of the 4.9 billion reactions generated, only hundreds of reaction cycles could be called "self-replicating," which means that the molecules produce additional copies of themselves.

And it can become self-replicating.