Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life: Caught in the Act of FormationSpringer, 15 d’ag. 2008 - 242 pàgines "How did life originate and why were left-handed molecules selected for its architecture?" This question of high public and interdisciplinary scientific interest is the central theme of this book. It is widely known that in processes triggering the origin of life on Earth, the equal occurrence, the parity between left-handed amino acids and their right-handed mirror images, was violated. The balance was inevitably tipped to the left – as a result of which life's proteins today exclusively implement the left form of amino acids. Written in an engaging style, this book describes how the basic building blocks of life, the amino acids, formed. After a comprehensible introduction to stereochemistry, the author addresses the inherent property of amino acids in living organisms, namely the preference for left-handedness. What was the cause for the violation of parity of amino acids in the emergence of life on Earth? All the fascinating models proposed by physicists, chemists and biologist are vividly presented including the scientific conflicts. The author describes the attempt to verify any of those models with the chirality module of the ROSETTA mission, a probe built and launched with the mission to land on a comet and analyse whether there are chiral organic compounds that could have been brought to the Earth by cometary impacts. A truly interdisciplinary astrobiology book, "Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life" will fascinate students, researchers and all readers with backgrounds in natural sciences. With a foreword by Henri B. Kagan. |
Des de l'interior del llibre
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... Life With a Foreword by Henri B. Kagan Springer Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life Advances in Astrobiology. Front Cover.
... life – from the creation of matter to the emergence of complex life forms – and the study of both structure and evolution of planetary ecosystems under a given set of astro- and geophysical parameters. The methods con- sidered can be of ...
... life and life's homochirality is unusual. Professor Meierhenrich has written a very detailed scenario on the at- tempts of scientists to propose hypotheses taking into account the stereochemical information given by the analysis of ...
... life's proteins today exclusively implement the left form of amino acids. Why to the left? If we rerun the tape of life's origin, would we once more obtain today's life using the left form of amino acids? Can't we think of mirror image life ...
... life's molec- ular asymmetry was originally initiated by Helmut Rosenbauer at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg - Lindau , Germany , via the ambi- tious conception and preparation of the COSAC - experiment ...
Continguts
Stereochemistry for the Study of the Origin of Life | 17 |
Lifes Chiral Molecules of Opposite Handedness | 47 |
When Crystals Deliver Chirality to Life | 61 |
The Weak Nuclear Interaction | 79 |
Light Magnetism and Chirality | 103 |
Key to the Prebiotic Origin of Amino Acids | 125 |
A New Record for Chiral Molecules in Meteorites 145 | 144 |
Chiral Molecules on Comets and on Mars | 161 |
Amplification Mechanisms 185 | 184 |
Appendix | 199 |
Bibliography | 207 |
Index | 229 |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life: Caught in the Act of Formation Uwe Meierhenrich Previsualització no disponible - 2010 |
Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life: Caught in the Act of Formation Uwe Meierhenrich Previsualització no disponible - 2008 |
Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life: Caught in the Act of Formation Uwe Meierhenrich Previsualització no disponible - 2008 |