Premium
Comments on “Mirror Symmetry Breaking” of the Centrosymmetric CaCO 3 Crystals with Amino Acids
Author(s) -
Lahav Meir,
Leiserowitz Leslie
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.200703491
Subject(s) - homochirality , chirality (physics) , crystallization , amino acid , symmetry breaking , symmetry (geometry) , calcium carbonate , mirror symmetry , chiral symmetry breaking , abiogenesis , phase (matter) , chemical physics , spontaneous symmetry breaking , crystallography , physics , theoretical physics , chemistry , explicit symmetry breaking , astrobiology , quantum mechanics , mathematics , geometry , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , biochemistry
Symmetry violation : Recent results by Tremel and co‐workers on the phase selection of calcium carbonate through the chirality of adsorbed amino acids appear to provide a deterministic route to “mirror‐symmetry breaking”, which may have ramifications for the emergence of homochirality on Earth. In our view, however, the crystallization experiments violate basic rules of symmetry and we suspect the presence of chemical, biological, or other homochiral or achiral contaminants in the system.