Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
Published on: August 18, 2017
Homochirality of biomolecules: counter-arguments against critical notes
1Institute of Biophysics, Biological Research Centre, Szeged, H-6701, Hungary.
Abstract:
Three recently published critical papers by Bonner and coworkers on the extraterrestrial origin of the homochirality of biomolecules and the amplification of tiny enantiomeric excess are discussed. The presented arguments show the difficulties involved in circularly polarized u.v. and visible synchrotron radiation from neutron stars, in their ratio to non circularly polarized light and in racemization of the products. Attention is called upon another mechanism for production of extraterrestrial handedness based on Salam's condensation theory and on the recent experimental demonstration of the enantioselective magnetochiral photochemistry. Arguments, as well as experiments, point out that tiny enantiomeric excesses might be amplified via the Yamagata accumulation principle questioned by Bonner.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Prochirality
Chirality in Nature
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...

