Chirality is a fundamental, persistent, but often overlooked feature of all living organisms on the molecular level as well as on the macroscopic scale. The high degree of preference for only one of two possible mirror image forms in Nature, often called biological homochirality is a puzzling, and not yet fully understood, phenomenon. This book covers biological homochirality from an interdisciplinary approach – contributions range from synthetic chemists, theoretical topologists and physicists, from palaeontologists and biologists to space scientists and representatives of the pharmaceutical and materials industries. Topics covered include – theory of biochirality, origins of biochirality, autocatalysis with amplification of chirality, macroscopic (present) biochirality, fossil records of chiral organisms – paleochirality, extraterrestrial origin of chirality, exceptions to the rule of biological homochirality, D-amino acids, chemical transfer of chirality, PV effects, and polarised radiation chemistry.
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