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Article: One step closer for mankind.(Amino acids)
- Article from:
- Chemistry and Industry
- Article date:
- April 21, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Society of Chemical Industry. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Scientists are a step nearer to explaining one of the most baffling aspects of life on Earth: why it is that almost all its amino acid building blocks occur as the L-isomers? Meteorites arriving here from distant planets have long been suspected as the initial seeds for the appearance of chirality on Earth, as they have frequently been found to carry 'unnatural' amino acids containing a small excess of the Lisomers. Until now, however, researchers have never been able to explain the big preponderance of L-forms in the amino acids found here.
In as yet unpublished work, Ronald Breslow and colleagues at the University of Columbia, ...