
New Twist Found in the Story of Life’s Start (2014) - amelius
https://www.quantamagazine.org/chiral-key-found-to-origin-of-life-20141126/
======
9214
Reminds me of solid-state theory of life's origin, described by Robert Becker
in his "Body Electric" book.

It proposes that life came from semiconducting crystals (various rocks and
sediments in the ocean of hot primordial soup) affected by electrical
discharges from ionosphere, and that right-hand chirality of isomers was
influenced by Earth's magnetic field in Precambrea era.

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Causality1
>All life on Earth is made of molecules that twist in the same direction

That is...not true, or at least a little misleading. Each class of molecule in
earth life twists the same way as other members of that class but not all
classes twist the same. For example, nucleotides twist right/D, while amino
acids twist left/L.

~~~
mekoka
From the article:

 _Scientists later discovered that this bias encompasses the entire living
world. Synthetic chemical processes will generate both left- and right-handed
molecules. But when nature makes a molecule, the product is either left- or
right-handed. For example, all amino acids that are used to make proteins
twist light to the left._

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joshuahedlund
This is from 2014. Does anyone know if there's been any advances since then on
what is discussed here?

~~~
Causality1
This article from 2016 has some peripherally related information:
[https://phys.org/news/2016-06-riddle-life-single-
handedness....](https://phys.org/news/2016-06-riddle-life-single-
handedness.html)

They found that in a racemic mixture, an excess of D or L amino acids results
in longer, sturdier polymers that don't break down as readily when exposed to
hazards such as hydrogen peroxide, and that amino acids delivered by
meteorites were slightly biased towards being L and thus catalyzing longer D
nucleotide sequences.

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i_feel_great
I always remember the tragedy of Thalidomide
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Birth_defect_crisi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Birth_defect_crisis))
when reading about chirality.

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maxerbubba
Does this resonate as a "Klein Bottle" to anybody else? The illustration in
particular.

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espeed
A few weeks ago when I was searching for signs of cycloids hiding in nature, I
came across scanned images of this obscure 1997 paper by Harvey A Jetmore Jr:
"An Hypothesis of Antinomy [0]" Parts [1] and [2]. One idea that jumped out at
me is Jetmore's hypothesized possible relationship between the cycloid, life
and the helix, which he summarizes in Part 1: 8 and 9...

    
    
      8. I can not ignore the possible relationship of the
      inorganic and organic rhelms suggested by the transition of
      cycloidal to helical motion, whether the vining of the
      morning glory or the DNA helix. Could it be that evolution is
      a function of the relative cycloidal curvature of space; 
      location in time on the brachistocrone, so to speak, 
      ie: that evolution is a sort of continuous creation?
    
      9. It is tempting to suggest that the material world is the
      rehlm of the curate cycloid from the limit of the common
      cycloid to the limit of the circle. and that; 
      energy (waves) is the rehlm of the prolate cycloid from the
      limit of the common cycloid to the limit of the line, and
      that; the limit of the point/center/axis is the rehlm of the
      V-oid and the black hole: and that; 
      the inorganic world of life is the rhelm of the helix.
    

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomy)

[1] "An Hypothesis of Antinomy I: The V-oid" [http://www.harveysspace.us/an-
hypothesis-of-antinomy---i---t...](http://www.harveysspace.us/an-hypothesis-
of-antinomy---i---the-v-oid.html)

[2] "An Hypothesis of Antinomy II: Playing Dice with the Universe"
[http://www.harveysspace.us/an-hypothesis-of-antinomy-ii--
pla...](http://www.harveysspace.us/an-hypothesis-of-antinomy-ii--playing-dice-
with-the-un-iverse.html)

NB: The formatting of the text on the Web page is a little messed up (scroll
down to see scanned images of the paper).

~~~
gjm11
This looks to me like crankishness close to the Time Cube level. Is there some
reason why you think it's worthy of attention, or relevant to this? (Beyond
the fact that it mentions helices, I mean.)

~~~
espeed
Cycloidal paths show up throughout the quantum world (hints of which I've
posted about before [1]). This is the first time I've seen anyone pose a
possible relationship between the cycloid, life and the helix. And in any
case, sometimes there are gems buried in unknown papers. As Eric Weinstein
states it, many things are "Pre-Correct, Currently Crazy" [2] -- the trick is
to find them.

[1] Some interesting properties of cycloids and places they show up
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18586144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18586144)

[2] MIT AI Podcast: Eric Weinstein - Revolutionary Ideas in Science, Math, and
Society
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19458503](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19458503)

