Open Access Book
Open Access Book image

Possible Scenarios for Homochirality on Earth


Author: Fujiki, Michiya
Source: Directory of Open Access Books
Publisher: MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
ISBN: 9783039217236||9783039217229
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Image

Share

Description
In 1978, Fred Hoyle proposed that interstellar comets carrying several viruses landed on Earth as part of the panspermia hypotheses. With respect to life, the origin of homochirality on Earth has been the greatest mystery because life cannot exist without molecular asymmetry. Many scientists have proposed several possible hypotheses to answer this long-standing L-D question. Previously, Martin Gardner raised the question about mirror symmetry and broken mirror symmetry in terms of the homochirality question in his monographs (1964 and 1990). Possible scenarios for the L-D issue can be categorized into (i) Earth and exoterrestrial origins, (ii) by-chance and necessity mechanisms, and (iii) mirror-symmetrical and non-mirror-symmetrical forces as physical and chemical origins. These scenarios should involve further great amplification mechanisms, enabling a pure L- or D-world.