In molecular biology there’s a property called chirality. Complex molecules often have twists in them, and those twists can be left-handed or right-handed. Biologists call these mirror image molecules isomers. It turns out all life on Earth is based on one isomer of DNA. Beyond common descent, there’s long been a debate over why. Astronomers may have the answer:
The answer, the researchers speculate, may be found in the way these molecules naturally form in space before being incorporated into asteroids and comets and later deposited on young planets.
“Meteorites in our Solar System contain chiral molecules that predate the Earth itself, and chiral molecules have recently been discovered in comets,” noted Carroll. “Such small bodies may be what pushed life to the handedness we see today. By discovering a chiral molecule in space, we finally have a way to study where and how these molecules form before they find their way into meteorites and comets”.
- Regarding colonizing Mars: one of these is real and one is satire: can you decide which is which?
- That’s Venus above courtesy of the Japanese Space Agency’s (JAXA) Akatsuki spacecraft. JAXA’s mission control barely brought this probe back from the brink when its main engine malfunctioned and, over several years time, managed to insert it into orbit around Venus using only attitude thrusters. But the moon is a cool place, too, and we’ll talk more about that tomorrow on Sunday Kos.
All five drugs approved by the FDA for long-term use in obese or overweight people were associated with a 5% reduction in weight at 1 year vs placebo, but two — controlled release phentermine and topiramate — had the highest odds of hitting that mark ...