[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles

[John K Clark]

One would have thought that the handedness of the molecules of life was just
a 50 50 luck of the draw, once one got in a slight excess a standard was set
and there was no reason to change; but there may be more to it than that.
Amino acids have been found in meteorites and they have the same handedness
as life too. Most non biological chemical processes produce an equal amount
of right and left, however if it is exposed to powerful clockwise polarized
microwaves it produced only right-handed sugars and left-handed amino-acids,
exactly what we see on Earth and in meteorites. Interestingly there is a
portion of the Orion Nebula that produces copious amounts of just this sort
of radiation; there may be a connection, if so the handedness of these
molecules may not be exactly universal but is the most common form in this
part of the galaxy.

 John K Clark    jonkc at att.net