"How did life originate and why were left-handed molecules selected for its architecture?" This question of high public and interdisciplinary scientific interest is the central theme of this book. It is widely known that in processes triggering the origin of life on Earth, the equal occurrence, the parity between left-handed amino acids and their right-handed mirror images, was violated. The balance is inevitably tipped to the left provoking that life s proteins today exclusively implement the left form of amino acids. Written in an intoxicating style, this book describes how the basic building blocks of life, the amino acids, formed. After a comprehensible introduction into stereochemistry, the author addresses the inherent property of amino acids in living organisms, namely the preference for left-handedness. What was the cause for violation of parity of amino acids in the emergence of life on Earth? All the fascinating models proposed by physicists, chemists and biologist are vividly presented including the scientific conflicts. The author describes the attempt to verify any of those models with the chirality module of the ROSETTA mission, a probe built and launched with the mission to land on a comet and analyse whether there are chiral organic compounds that could have been brought to the Earth by cometary impacts.A truly interdisciplinary astrobiology book, "Amino Acids and the Asymmetry of Life", will fascinate students, researchers and all readers with backgrounds in natural sciences..
With a foreword by Henri B. Kagan.

1;Foreword;7 2;Preface;10 3;Contents;13 4;List of Symbols and Abbreviations;16 5;Chapter 1 Tracing Life's Origin: From Amino Acids to Space Mission ROSETTA;20 5.1;1.1 The Origin of Life;20 5.2;1.2 The Asymmetry of Life;21 5.3;1.3 How Life's Asymmetry Originated;24 6;Chapter 2 Stereochemistry for the Study of the Origin of Life;36 6.1;2.1 Amino Acids and Chemical Reactions: A Guided Tour;36 6.2;2.2 Optical Activity;43 6.3;2.3 Stereochemical Nomenclature;44 6.3.1;2.3.1 The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Notation: R- and S-Enantiomers;44 6.3.2;2.3.2 (+)- and (-)-Enantiomers;45 6.3.3;2.3.3 D- and L-Enantiomers;45 6.3.4;2.3.3 D- and L-Enantiomers;45 6.3.5;2.3.4 d- and l-Enantiomorph Crystals;46 6.3.6;2.3.5 P- and M-Descriptors;46 6.3.7;2.3.6

and .-Descriptors;46 6.4;2.4 Optical Rotation Dispersion and Cotton Effect;47 6.5;2.5 Through the Eye of a Chromophore: CD Spectroscopy;50 6.6;2.6 Miscellaneous Techniques;53 6.7;2.7 "Chiral Light" and the Stokes Parameters;55 6.8;2.8 Chromatographic Resolution of Enantiomers;58 7;Chapter 3 Minority Report: Life's Chiral Molecules of Opposite Handedness;66 7.1;3.1 Sympathy for the Devil: How D-Amino Acids Make OrganismsWork;67 7.2;3.2 The Dark Side of D-Amino Acids;70 7.3;3.3 "What Time was it?" Ask the Amino Acid Clock!;71 7.4;3.4 Biotic Origin:Were D-Life and L-Life Contemporaries?;73 8;Chapter 4 When Crystals Deliver Chirality to Life;79 8.1;4.1 Spontaneous Crystallization of Chiral Minerals;81 8.2;4.2 Heated Debate:Which Amino Acid Enantiomer Precipitates First?;85 8.3;4.3 TurningWorld: The Direction of Stirring;90 8.4;4.4 Deposits of Enantiomorphous Quartz on Earth;92 8.5;4.5 Adsorption of Chiral Organic Molecules on Enantiomorphous Crystals;94 9;Chapter 5 When Parity Falls: TheWeak Nuclear Interaction;97 9.1;5.1 The Fall of Parity: "I Couldn't Understand It";98 9.2;5.2 Asymmetric Radiolysis by Polarized Electrons;102 9.3;5.3 The Vester-Ulbricht Process;104 9.3.1;5.3.1 Circularly Polarized Bremsstrahlung in the VU Process;105 9.3.2;5.3.2 In Search of the Ultimate VU Experiment: California Dreaming?;106 9.3.3;5.3.3 What Are the Next VU Experiments?;108 9.4;5.4 Parity Non-Conserving Energy Differences;108 9.4.1;5.4.1 The Electroweak Interaction;109 9.4.2;5.4.2 Characteristics of Electromagnetic and Weak Interaction;110 9.4.3;5.4.3 Difference Matters: Energies of Enantiomers;111 9.4.4;5.4.4 Calculated Energy Differences of Amino Acid Enantiomers;113 9.4.5;5.4.5 Calculated Energy Differences of Sugar Enantiomers;115 9.4.6;5.4.6 Never Say Never: Measuring Parity Non-Conserving Energy Differences;117 9.4.7;5.4.7 Implications of Parity Non-Conserving Energy Differences;120 10;Chapter 6 Chiral Fields: Light, Magnetism, and Chirality;121 10.1;6.1 Magneto-Optical Effects;122 10.2;6.2 Photochirogenesis;125 10.3;6.2.1 Asymmetric Photolysis of Racemic Organic Molecules;125 10.4;6.2.2 Asymmetric Photolysis of Amino Acids;126 10.5;6.2.3 Asymmetric Photoisomerization;135 10.6;6.2.4 Asymmetric Synthesis;137 10.7;6.2.5 'Natural' Sources of Circularly Polarized Light;138 11;Chapter 7 Key to the Prebiotic Origin of Amino Acids;143 11.1;7.1 Amino Acid Formation Under Atmospheric Conditions;143 11.2;7.2 Amino Acid Formation Under Hydrospheric Conditions;145 11.3;7.3 Amino Acid Formation Under Interstellar Conditions;145 11.4;7.3.1 Photochemistry in the Interstellar Medium;145 11.5;7.3.2 Simulation of Interstellar Chemistry in the Lab;146 11.6;7.3.3 Fresh in the Ice: Amino Acid Structures;149 11.7;7.3.4 Illumination with Circularly Polarized Light;158 12;Chapter 8 A New Record for Chiral Molecules in Meteorites;162 12.1;8.1 Chiral Organic Molecules in Meteorites?;162 12.1.1;8.1.1 Amino Acids in Meteorites;163 12.1.2;8.1.2 The Untold Story of Diamino Acids in Meteorites;165 12.2;8.2 Diamino Acids as Gene Trigger;171 12.3;8.3 Survival of Organic Molecules After Impact on Earth;174 12.4;8.4 Space Exploration and Chirality: What Next?;175 13;Chapter 9 The New Space Race: Chiral Molecules on Comets and on Mars;177 13.1;9.1 In