Tag

Homochirality

All articles tagged with #homochirality

science3 days ago•5 min saved

Kagan and Soai win 2026 Chemistry Nobel for cracking the homochirality code

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a century-old mystery regarding how life exclusively uses one mirror-image form of molecules. Their discoveries in non-linear effects and autocatalysis explain how chemical reactions can spontaneously produce a single enantiomer, a feat previously only observed in nature. This breakthrough has profound implications for pharmaceutical safety and understanding the molecular origins of life.

via Interesting Engineering|

#chemistry #chirality #homochirality

science5 months ago•3 min saved

Quantum Spin May Explain Life’s Preference for One Molecular Hand

Scientists propose that electron spin, a quantum property, interacts with moving chiral molecules to create tiny, non-equal effects between mirror-image forms. These spin-dependent differences can influence how each enantiomer participates in reactions and transport, offering a possible mechanism for homochirality where biology consistently uses one handed form. The finding suggests quantum physics may have helped shape the molecular foundations of life, beyond chemistry alone.

via SciTechDaily|

#chiralmolecules #electronspin #enantiomers

science1 year ago•3 min saved

Scientists Warn Against Risks of 'Mirror Life' Research

A group of 38 scientists is urging a ban on the creation of life forms made from 'mirror-image molecules' due to potential global health risks. These organisms, which would be a radical departure from known life, could replicate unchecked as they would not be controlled by natural mechanisms like predators, antibiotics, or the immune system. While the creation of such life forms is not imminent, the scientists emphasize the need for a global dialogue to govern this area of synthetic biology, balancing scientific advancement with safety concerns.

via ScienceAlert|

#biotechnology #global-health #homochirality

science1 year ago•4 min saved

RNA's Role in Balancing Protein Chirality Uncovered

Recent research published in Nature Communications reveals that RNA, a molecule thought to have played a crucial role in the early development of life, can favor the production of both left- and right-handed amino acids, challenging the notion that early life had a chemical predisposition for left-handed proteins. This finding deepens the mystery of why life predominantly uses left-handed amino acids, suggesting that life's homochirality might have emerged due to evolutionary pressures rather than chemical determinism.

via Phys.org|

#amino-acids #homochirality #origin-of-life

science1 year ago•3 min saved

NASA Explores Deeper Mysteries of Life's Molecular Handedness

A NASA-funded study has found that RNA, a molecule thought to have preceded DNA in early life, can favor producing either left- or right-handed amino acids, challenging the idea that early life had a chemical bias for left-handed amino acids, which dominate in modern proteins. This discovery deepens the mystery of life's homochirality and suggests that evolutionary pressures, rather than chemical determinism, may have led to the preference for left-handed amino acids. The research, published in Nature Communications, was conducted under simulated early-Earth conditions.

via NASA|

#amino-acids #homochirality #nasa

science2 years ago•4 min saved

"The Origin of Biological Handedness: Unraveling Life's Symmetry"

Scripps Research chemists have proposed a solution to the mystery of how molecular "handedness" or homochirality emerged in early biology, showing that it could have become established through a chemistry phenomenon called kinetic resolution. Their studies suggest that the emergence of homochirality was largely due to kinetic resolution, where one chiral form becomes more abundant than another due to faster production and/or slower depletion. This explanation offers a broad and convincing explanation for the emergence of homochirality in fundamental biological molecules such as amino acids, DNA, and RNA.

via Phys.org|

#chirality #homochirality #kinetic-resolution

science3 years ago•3 min saved

The rocky origins of life's right-handed building blocks.

Harvard University-led research suggests that the building blocks of life may have started with the right kind of rocks. The researchers explain how life became molecularly right-handed, with RNA and the sugars that makeup DNA being right-handed molecules. By placing ribo-amino oxazoline (RAO) on magnetite surfaces, researchers could achieve 100% handedness of RAO crystallization, either left or right, depending on the spin-exchange interaction and degree of spin alignment at the active surface. The researchers say the effect is not likely to occur in particle solution contact like mud but rather on sedimentary rock surfaces.

via Phys.org|

#harvard-university #homochirality #magnetite

science3 years ago•2 min saved

New Discovery Sheds Light on Origin of Left- and Right-Handed Molecules in Life

Researchers propose that magnetic minerals common on early Earth could have caused key biomolecules to accumulate on their surface in just one mirror image form, setting off a positive feedback that continued to favor the same form, explaining the origin of biological handedness or "homochirality." The researchers found that when they exposed the magnetite surface to a solution containing an equal mix of right- and left-handed RAO molecules, 60% of those that settled on top were of a single handedness. Once an excess of chiral RNA is formed, known chemical reactions could pass on this chiral bias, templating amino acids and proteins with the opposite handedness and ultimately fostering other chiral molecules essential to cell metabolism.

via Slashdot|

#homochirality #life-molecules #magnetic-minerals