Related papers: On the Biological Advantage of Chirality
Chirality is not just a structural artifact in biology but it may provide for a genuine biological advantage. This is due to the phenomenon of chiral interaction (CI) which is described here for mechanical-chiral devices. The main…
The article seeks to formulate a synergetic law that is posited to be of common physicochemical and biological nature: an evolving system, possessing free energy and elements with chiral asymmetry may change the type of symmetry inside one…
The chiral structure of liquid crystalline phases arises due to the intrinsic chirality of the constituent mesogens. While it is seemingly straightforward to quantify the macroscopic chirality by using, for instance, the cholesteric pitch…
Molecular chirality is critical to biochemical function, but it is unknown when chiral selectivity first became important in the evolutionary transition from geochemistry to biochemistry during the emergence of life. Here, we identify key…
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…
Chirality, the property of asymmetry, is of great importance in biological and physical phenomena. This prospective offers an overview of the emerging field of chiral bioinspired plasmonics and metamaterials, aiming to uncover nature's…
Chirality, handedness, is one of the most fundamental intriguing asymmetries in nature. By definition, chiral objects cannot be superimposed onto each other after mirror reflection operation. Numerous examples of chiral structures can be…
Molecular chirality is inherent to biology and cellular chemistry. In this report, the origin of enantiomeric selectivity is analyzed from the viewpoint of the "RNA World" model, based on the autocatalytic self-replication of glyceraldehyde…
We predict a discriminatory interaction between a chiral molecule and an achiral molecule which is mediated by a chiral body. To achieve this, we generalize the van der Waals interaction potential between two ground-state molecules with…
Chitin and protein are two main building blocks for many natural biomaterials. The interaction between chitin and protein critically determines the properties of the composite biological materials. As living organisms usually encounter…
Biological macromolecules, proteins and nucleic acids are composed exclusively of chirally pure monomers. The chirality consensus appears vital for life and it has even been considered as a prerequisite of life. However the primary cause…
In chemistry and biochemistry, chirality represents the structural asymmetry characterized by non-superimposable mirror images for a material like DNA. In physics, however, chirality commonly refers to the spin-momentum locking of a…
We explore the interplay between tunneling process and chiral interactions in the discrimination of chiral states for an ensemble of molecules in a biological environment. Each molecule is described by an asymmetric double-well potential…
Chirality is an intriguing property of certain molecules, materials or artificial nanostructures, which allows them to interact with the spin angular momentum of the impinging light field. Due to their chiral geometry, they can distinguish…
Biological organisms often have elongated, flexible structures with some degree of chirality in their bodies or movements. In nature, these organisms frequently take advantage of self-encapsulation mechanisms that create folded…
Chirality plays a crucial role in determining the structure of many systems in nature. Twisted or helical aggregates as a consequence of self-assembly can be seen in many biological and synthetic materials. Despite extensive theoretical and…
Chirality, or handedness, is a geometrical property denoting a lack of mirror symmetry. Chirality is ubiquitous in nature and is associated with the non-reciprocal interactions observed in complex systems ranging from biomolecules to…
Directed motion up a concentration gradient is crucial for the survival and maintenance of numerous biological systems, such as sperms moving towards an egg during fertilization or ciliates moving towards a food source. In these systems,…
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 in shape and motility can evolve rapidly in microbes and cancer cells. To determine how chirality affects cell fitness, we developed a model of chiral growth in compact aggregates such as microbial colonies and solid tumors. Our…