If only left-handed helicene spirals are deposited on the cobalt-copper surface, they clearly prefer cobalt islands with a certain direction of magnetization. In the image, the two triangular cobalt islands have opposite magnetization; the left-handed helicene molecules bind almost exclusively to the island on the right and avoid the island on the left (except for a few molecules at the edge of the island). Image: Peter Grünberg Institute/Jülich
If only left-handed helicene spirals are deposited on the cobalt-copper surface, they clearly prefer cobalt islands with a certain direction of magnetization. In the image, the two triangular cobalt islands have opposite magnetization; the left-handed helicene molecules bind almost exclusively to the island on the right and avoid the island on the left (except for a few molecules at the edge of the island). Image: Peter Grünberg Institute/Jülich Biomolecules such as amino acids and sugars occur in two mirror-image forms - in all living organisms, however, only one is ever found. Why this is the case is still unclear. Researchers at Empa and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have now found evidence that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields could be at the origin of this phenomenon. The so-called homochirality of life - the fact that all biomolecules in living organisms only ever occur in one of two mirror-image forms - has puzzled a number of scientific luminaries, from the discoverer of molecular chirality, Louis Pasteur, to William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Nobel Prize winner Pierre Curie. A conclusive explanation is still lacking, as both forms have, for instance, the same chemical stability and do not differ from each other in their physico-chemical properties.
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