Related papers: Punctuated Chirality
Both symmetry and organized breaking of symmetry have a pivotal r\^ole in our understanding of structure and pattern formation in physical systems, including the origin of mass in the Universe and the chiral structure of biological…
The identification of a universal biosignature that could be sensed remotely is critical to the prospects for success in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. A candidate universal biosignature is homochirality, which is likely to…
For over two decades, the role of structural chirality in spin polarization has been widely investigated, with implications for the origins of life, catalysis, and quantum phenomena. Yet, it remains unclear whether all chirality-induced…
Several aspects of mathematical astrobiology are discussed. It is argued that around the time of the origin of life the handedness of biomolecules must have established itself through an instability. Possible pathways of producing a certain…
Many natural phenomena evolve intermittently, with periods of tranquillity interrupted by bursts of activity, rather than following a smooth gradual path. Examples include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, solar flares, gamma-ray bursts, and…
To understand the relationship between the chirality of individual cells and that of tissues and organisms, we have developed a chiral polarized particle model to investigate the movement of cell populations on substrates. Our model…
It is suggested that life originated in a three-step process referred to as the jigsaw model. RNA, proteins, or similar organic molecules polymerized in a dehydrated carbon-rich environment, on surfaces in a carbon-rich environment, or in…
Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life. A polymer longer than 40--100 nucleotides is necessary to expect a self-replicating activity, but the…
Polymorphism, the phenomenon that a species can exist in many discrete forms, is common in nature, such as hair colors in an animal species, flower colors in a tree species, and blood types in humans, etc. In materials science, it refers to…
Chirality is a universal feature in nature, as observed in fermion interactions and DNA helicity. Much attention has been given to chiral interactions of light, not only regarding its physical interpretation but also focusing on intriguing…
Chirality is considered by many scientists to be mainly a geometric concept. There exists also a physical aspect of chirality which is largely being overlooked at. Two examples of mechanical devices are introduced here that represent…
Why life is complex and --most importantly-- what is the origin of the over abundance of complexity in nature? This is a fundamental scientific question which, paraphrasing the late Per Bak, "is screaming to be answered but seldom is even…
Applying the constraints dictated by the principle of detailed balance, we analyze a recent proposal for spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking (SMSB) based on enantioselective autocatalysis coupled to a linear decay of the enantiomers and in…
The stability properties of models of spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in chemistry are characterized algebraically. The models considered here all derive either from the Frank model or from autocatalysis with limited…
In complex systems, the interplay between nonlinear and stochastic dynamics, e.g., J. Monod's necessity and chance, gives rise to an evolutionary process in Darwinian sense, in terms of discrete jumps among attractors, with punctuated…
Many of life's most fascinating phenomena emerge from interactions among many elements--many amino acids determine the structure of a single protein, many genes determine the fate of a cell, many neurons are involved in shaping our thoughts…
Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and confinement are two crucial features of Quantum Chromodynamics responsible for the nature of the hadron spectrum. These phenomena, presumably coincidental, can account for 98% of the mass of our…
The stability and conservation properties of a recently proposed polymerization model are studied. The achiral (racemic) solution is linearly unstable once the relevant control parameter (here the fidelity of the catalyst) exceeds a…
Life can be viewed as a localized chemical system that sits on, or in the basin of attraction of, a metastable dynamical attractor state that remains out of equilibrium with the environment. Such a view of life allows that new living states…
Molecular chirality is a key concept in chemistry with implications for the origin of life and the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. Previous simulations of a chiral molecular model with an energetic bias towards homochiral interactions…