A treatise on the handedness of life???
Since we have recently started discussing handedness (chirality), I found this article on the possible reason why handedness occurs in so many different arenas (organic chemistry, biochemistry, magnetism, and so on) of "life" to be appropriate.
Yes, there really are researchers out there attempting to find the theoretical rationale behind questions such as this. I do believe the author puts too much emphasis on the importance of the topic (i.e. it is NOT going to answer the origin of life in my opinion); however, it is still food for thought. Also, the youtube video discussing the mirror paradox (why is it that a mirror will "mix up" left versus right but not top versus bottom) is interesting as well.
The news article discussing the origins of handedness can be found at the link below:
The origins of handedness in life
Yes, there really are researchers out there attempting to find the theoretical rationale behind questions such as this. I do believe the author puts too much emphasis on the importance of the topic (i.e. it is NOT going to answer the origin of life in my opinion); however, it is still food for thought. Also, the youtube video discussing the mirror paradox (why is it that a mirror will "mix up" left versus right but not top versus bottom) is interesting as well.
The news article discussing the origins of handedness can be found at the link below:
The origins of handedness in life
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| Taken from http://www.s8int.com/images/chiral.jpg |
Personally, handiness is not going to prove the orgins of life, however it could possibly help scientist discover how light first appeared on this earth. I find interesting that scientist discovered that DNA employs to the right. I'm wondering if this means that RNA is employed to the right as well? I'm wondering why bromocaphor reacted better with left-handedness at low energies and right-handness with modest energies. Could it possibly be because of stability?
ReplyDeleteIt is funny to think that a mirror's image of yourself is just your face being smashed through the back of your head. This whole article simply demonstrates the complexity of God's creation (Faith integration applies to everything). In a world that is supposed to be run by random events, what are the chances of there being perfect mirror images of molecules? Reading this reminded me of learning fractal biology and how there are unexplained patterns seen in science.
ReplyDeleteI was really excited when I read that handedness could prove the origin of life. I have never heard of this idea. Unfortunately, I found the article to be a little disappointing. Its crazy they would even consider this and even go as far as doing research. However, i don't see how its possible to prove the origin of life with such idea. Even if they were able to figure out how it all works, how will they explain where the first DNA or protein came from. Although, if by some miracle they were able to prove the origin of life, could they be able to create some form of life using the knowledge they gained. Overall it shows how some scientist are willing to do just to disprove God.
ReplyDeleteSorry this was my response, my Google account wasn't working for some reason.
DeleteI think that there are some great ideas proposed in this article, but I do find I hard to believe that the topic itself can be used to explain the origin of life. I think that there are questions that will still arise either way and that scientist wont be able to find the answers that they are looking for. Seeing the complexity of the subject at hand, it may be a challenge to explain what caused this by random events.
ReplyDeleteThe primary thing I learned from this is that even MIT's fraternities are nerdy. But in all honesty, this is a fascinating topic. I agree that understanding chirality will not answer the origin of life, however, because of the seeming ubiquity of chirality, the significance of its causation is unquestionably significant. That being said, I can not, off the top of my head, think of any specific applications of knowing its source. This is probably because we can barely speculate about the nature of the source. The consequent applications will vary if it is truly due to stability versus CP light versus something that hasn't even been thought of yet. Overall, I found this article to be quite thought-provoking and I think it will come in very handy... *crickets*
ReplyDeleteI think that this is pretty interesting. Of course I agree that this is not the key for finding the origin of life, but I do find chirality very interesting. I've always fond mirrors quite fascinating, I remember once I sat in front of the bathroom mirror and tried to paint the American flag on my face for the Fourth of July but when I got to church I was told that the flag was backwards on my face. Being seven and all, I was really confused at why this had happened, and spent a good portion of the rest of the day in front of a mirror experimenting with my reflection.
ReplyDeleteAnother part about chirality that I think is really cool is that a D- form of something will rotate in the opposite direction of the L-form in polarized light. Overall as fascinating as it is, I think chirality and enantiomers confused me the most during Organic chemistry over I was often thinking of the example of how the right glove does not fit the left hand analogy to try to get me through the chapter.
I very much liked your thoughts on how chirality, or the mirror phenomenon occurs in many other areas of life. I have always found anomalies like this to be of particular interest due to my belief in a Creator. Order is not to be taken lightly. The essence of order, that is. The ionic bonding on a molecular level resembles the same attraction a man and woman share for eachother. Memory cells in the immune system can resemble a country remembering the attack of an enemy, and recording it. The body seems to have its own Counter Intelligence. The molecular level of life seems to carry the same essence of order, as does the actions of humans. Its almost as if the molecular parts of our body, and the inherent systems they perform, have the same instinct as we do. Space resembles the same idea. An atom very much resembles our solar system. Planets being the electrons (It is understood that electrons move freely throughout their assigned orbital), and the earth being the atom. There surely is nothing new under the sun. The same ideas God used to create the smallest parts of the solar system are very similar in logic to the laws seen in the largest parts of the solar system.
ReplyDeleteAs far as chirality goes, the mirror video was absolutely fascinating to try to grasp. Its as if the mirror can see behind you. It can manipulate your appearance. Understanding chirality in chemistry has definately helped to grasp this concept of the mirror.
I think that this topic is very interesting and relevant for those of us in Organic Chemistry. While I don't believe that chirality is the origin of life, I do believe that it is important in science. It's fascinating that even some of the most brilliant scientists cannot determine why an amino acid or sugar favors one orientation to another. Not having a strong background and understanding in chirality and biochemistry prohibits me from fully understanding the article, but I see the point they are trying to make. It would interesting to see later on if they actually discover the causation of it. Their points regarding beta-decay and circularly polarized light would be intriguing if it did point to the origination. It could have tremendous possibilities for more specific therapies and discoveries down the road.
ReplyDeleteThis article is fascinating, especially when one considers how chirality informs molecular behavior and confers a unique "personality" to the molecule. Hewitt takes a huge leap in claiming that handedness explains the origins of life (he seems to be quite the metaphysicist). It's always interesting when people take the small intricacies of life and weave them into a larger, overarching philosophy. It seems to me that Hewitt has such a clear understanding of the trees that he gets some strange ideas about the overall forest. But discussing Hewitt as an individual should be left for another day.....
ReplyDeleteNon-superimposable enantiomers are very interesting because they deal with mirror reflections. Small changes in the relative positions of molecules can change their smell, but other physical properties generally remain constant. Enantiomers seem to be a great starting place for a Chemistry of Smells class. It's intriguing that the nose houses special (chiral) receptors for some stereoisomers but not others. A study examining types of nasal receptors present for a given molecule (E/Z, R/S, +/-) would shed light on the biological relevance of certain enantiomers, and could offer important insights regarding drug prophylaxis.
The fact that there appears to be left handed dominance found in nature and chemistry reminds me of the theory of common design through creation. If the skeletal wing structure of a bat is so similar to the paw of a mammal or the hand of a human some scientists (evolutionists) may say that this is evidence of evolution. However, a creationist would argue that this suggests a common design that was efficient enough to be repeated in various forms. The same principle applies to handedness. It is also important to remember the extreme accuracy and complexity of such things in science, otherwise one may fall into the trap of actually believing that such things could have evolved naturally over long periods of time without the design of a master Creator.
ReplyDeleteChirality plays a huge role in life. The way many things function, react, and come together is usually due to shape, rotation, and size. I do agree with Jessica, though. If this argument is taken too far, then it will be used by evolutionists to describe the origin of life. I do like how the article favored left handedness because I am left-handed and there is great benefits that come with being left handed.
ReplyDeleteThis chirality in biology is the subject of much debate among scientists.Most scientists believe that Earth life's choice of chirality was purely random, and that if carbon based life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, their chemistry could theoretically have opposite chirality.
ReplyDeleteChirality and the predominance of left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars is a fascinating topic. As Jessica and Preston pointed out, it shows evidence for a Creator. Imagine the statistical improbability of virtually every amino acid essential to life evolving to have a left-handed nature. Ultimately, this is what we have. This can be attributed to mere chance, but the mathematical improbability of this happening by purely random processes is difficult to ignore. Again, it points to an intelligent designer.
ReplyDeleteNow, to step on some toes: I believe that pride is the reason that molecules-to-man evolutionists exist today. There are countless examples in nature of complexity and design, whether it be the human eye, ecosystem processes, chirality, or DNA itself. Somehow, all these things had to have come into being somehow. Thus enters the entire life origins debate. Those who believe in molecules-to-man evolution (from here on out called "evolutionists," considering that adaptation/microevolution is an undisputed fact) will readily admit that the statistical probability of life beginning on earth is astronomically large, but here we are, so it must have happened. All complexity and design in life happened initially by chance. Creationists believe that God created the world and designed it all intentionally. Thus, there are two positions. First, that life arose from purely natural processes that are nearly impossible (statistically speaking), and second, that God created life on earth. Both require faith. One requires faith in a God whose existence cannot be statistically determined, and the other requires a faith in chance, which is nearly statistically absurd. Why do some choose to believe in chance rather than God? Because of pride. Quite simply, by choosing to not believe in a God, they are choosing to make themselves "god." They do not wish to be subject to an authority greater than themselves, and therefore choose the atheistic path of evolution. Rather than worshiping and serving God, they have decided to worship and serve themselves through science.
"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator . . . " Romans 1:25
This is a very thought-provoking article. Although I agree with you in that it will probably not answer the question of the origin of life, I found it very interesting that the author thought it would answer this question. Perhaps he was being slightly melodramatic, or maybe he really thinks so, but I wish he had explained why he thought it could answer this question.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of handedness and chirality is important and relevant since there are many drugs that come in d- or l- forms, and their chirality can change their effects in vivo. For instance, ethambutol can come in d- or l- form. D-ethambutol is used to treat tuberculosis, but l-ethambutol has been known to cause blindness (1). For this reason, knowing what causes handedness can be crucially important for maintaining life.
The idea that beta interactions can “cause” or “effect” chirality in an organic molecule is a very interesting thought, although hard to prove. I also liked the final thought about the mirror and explaining why the image seems to be different from left to right. The simplest thoughts are sometimes the hardest to put into words, but the video was rather eloquent.
1. http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Organic_Chemistry/Chirality/Optical_Activity
This article was very interesting. It is fascinating to think that the handedness of different molecules really does matter a lot. Though the CP theory is a very thought out theory, it is not likely to describe the precursor to life.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a very interesting article, however I do not think that this concept by itself can determine the origin of life. I think that this concept could be taken too far and evolutionists will start getting involved. I also think that since chirality plays such a large role in life that this can be researched further to see how it applies, but like I said before I do not think that this can answer the question of where life came from.
ReplyDeleteThis article makes me re-think the importance that chirality has. When learning about chirality, I just liked it because it was a seemingly easy concept in the chaos of organic chemistry. The CP theory, however, does not seem to hold the key to life, as the author thinks it does. This could cause some great controversy among scientists and evolutionists. Regardless, this article was an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI can honestly and truthfully say that when physics concepts and equations are used to explain or add to biological ideas, my brain almost always shuts down. But it is undeniably an important aspect of understanding how our bodies work. In fact, in Neuroscience, we recently discussed the initiation and propagation of action potentials down an axon and how it relates to ohm's law (V=IR). And now this article is trying to explain chirality using polarity (something I vaguely remember learning in Physics). I guess I might just be in a reflective mood as graduation approaches, but the biggest lesson for me from this article is that no knowledge is wasted. Everything we've learned in these four years is applicable in some shape or form, and going forward we should search for opportunities to practice what we know and embrace those opportunities to learn the things we don't.
ReplyDelete