Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments
11:10

Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments

Published on: January 21, 2014

Possible mechanism for origin of chiral specificity during origins of life

R Balasubramanian

    Origins of Life
    |December 1, 1983
    PubMed

    More Related Videos

    Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers08:51

    Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

    Published on: August 18, 2017

    A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality08:07

    A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

    Published on: March 11, 2022

    Related Concept Videos

    Chirality02:25

    Chirality

    Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
    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...
    Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

    Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

    Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
    Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

    Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

    Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
    A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
    Prochirality02:05

    Prochirality

    The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
    Chirality in Nature02:30

    Chirality in Nature

    Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...
    Origin of Cellular Life01:24

    Origin of Cellular Life

    The origin of life on Earth is a complex and enigmatic event rooted in ancient biochemical processes and geological conditions. Experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that life began with the spontaneous formation of organic molecules such as RNA nucleotides, amino acids, and lipids under early Earth conditions. Factors like volcanic activity, intense UV radiation, and a reducing atmosphere without free oxygen likely facilitated these reactions. Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor are...