title: The origin of biological homochirality.
abstract: The single handedness of biological molecules has fascinated scientists and laymen alike since Pasteur's first painstaking separation of the enantiomorphic crystals of a tartrate salt over 150 years ago. More recently, a number of theoretical and experimental investigations have helped to delineate models for how one enantiomer might have come to dominate over the other from what presumably was a racemic prebiotic world. Mechanisms for enantioenrichment that include either chemical or physical processes, or a combination of both, are discussed in the context of experimental studies in autocatalysis and in the phase behaviour of chiral molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. blackmond@scripps.edu
authors.forename: Donna G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Blackmond
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D003460:Crystallization; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D008956:Models, Chemical; D012995:Solubility; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D002241:Carbohydrates; D012996:Solutions