Abstract
ONE of the most exciting hypotheses put forward to explain the molecular asymmetry of living beings is based on a physical concept, the ‘parity nonconservation law’1. According to this, matter is intrinsically asymmetric (β particles are always spin polarised) and the molecular asymmetry on Earth is a reflection of the structure of matter itself2–5. Though the theory is attractive, experimental results are controversial. Some people have reported differences in the radiation susceptibility of the two enantiomers (D and L forms) of a molecule if irradiated with β− particles and/or their associated circularly polarised γ rays (bremsstrahlung)6, whereas others have failed to detect any differential radiolysis in similar experiments7. One possible explanation for the controversial data may be that the decomposition of molecules depends on many factors which may mask the expected differential interaction between β− particles and optical isomers. To avoid these disturbing factors, we studied the annihilation of β+ particles in optical isomers, exploiting the great advantage of this technique that it gives information about the interaction process itself rather than about the products of interaction.
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GARAY, A., KESZTHELYI, L., DEMETER, I. et al. Origin of asymmetry in biomolecules. Nature 250, 332–333 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250332a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/250332a0
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