42: The Answer to Almost Everything — Season 1, Episode 192: What if life were mirrored?

Episode synopsis

Imagine for a moment that everything was reversed. It may sound mind-boggling, but it is not entirely absurd. Many of the molecules that make up life on Earth have a symmetrical counterpart—a mirror-image twin known as an enantiomer. These mirror molecules represent a promising avenue for the discovery of new and potentially more effective medicines. But what if we could go even further? What if it were possible not only to mirror individual vital molecules, but entire living organisms—bacteria, for example? What would happen if we managed to reverse life itself? And what would our world look like then?

About 42: The Answer to Almost Everything

What would we be without mucus? Can we live on water? How much does life weigh? Finding out the answers is the aim of ARTE's new science show. In a nod to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where the figure 42 is the ultimate answer to all questions, 42 tries to provide the answers.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Can we dig our way through the Earth?
• E2Could We Live on the Moon?
• E3Should we use lotteries instead of elections?
• E4How Much Does Life Weigh?
• E5Will we move onto the water?
• E6Can Algorithms Make Us Healthy?
• E7What if there were no mucus?
• E8How do we solve the nuclear waste puzzle?
• E9What if Fear Didn't Exist?
• E10What if the ice disappeared?
• E11Do We All hear the Same Thing?
• E12Are we too pessimistic?