Belinda Smith

speaker

2,440 appearances 25 recordings 4 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 6d ago

Belinda Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 25 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.

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The Science Show · Pioneers past and present, and fiddling with life brings a heavy caution · 24 Jul 2026 podcast

So things that haven't evolved to live in the ecosystem are sort of at an automatic disadvantage, almost?

But we do get invasive species.

That does happen.

So there's clearly still are risks, right?

Would there be any predators for a mirror cell then?

So predation is kind of an unknown, but competition, you think, is still probably going to outcompete mirror life?

Okay.

You said engineered things are generally less efficient.

Could you explain a little bit why?

This whole mirror life situation reminds Professor Solé of the arguments for and against recombinant DNA technology in the 80s and 90s, which allowed for the development of genetically modified organisms.

Stanford microbiologist David Relman agrees that real, functioning mirror life is still a long way off.

But in the meantime, he believes that there are ways to reduce its potential threats.

I know when we look at the doomsday clock and we talk about, for instance, climate change, everyone has a pretty clear idea of what the solutions are to that.

Whether or not they're being pursued is a different question.

On the biological side, the technological side, are there clear answers for things that can reduce these threats there?

David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford University in the US, speaking to Ellen Fidian.

The doomsday clock hands are set at 85 seconds to midnight, which is the closest they've ever been to midnight.

And David and his colleagues are now starting to talk about whether the time on the doomsday clock should be changed again next year.

For him, the convergence of artificial intelligence and biological tools is particularly concerning.

Well, when I was a young person, sure.

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