Homochirality: Why Nature Never Makes Mirror Molecules
Steve Mould3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2021-2022
1.7M views · 6 years ago · explainer · evergreen
Steve Mould explains homochirality: why biological molecules like sugars and amino acids come in only one handedness. He covers ideas about how this asymmetry might have arisen, touching on meteorite samples and RNA.
Cited as a clear, accessible explanation of why life uses only one version of chiral molecules.
54:41Jack Szostak (Harvard/HHMI) Part 1: The Origin of Cellular Life on Earth
Science Communication Lab
378K views • 14 years ago
58:02James Tour: The Mystery of the Origin of Life
Discovery Science
951K views • 7 years ago
33:47Why is Life the Way it Is? with Nick Lane
The Royal Institution
102K views • 11 years ago
55:59How the Krebs cycle powers life and death – with Nick Lane
The Royal Institution
389K views • 4 years ago
1:18:06Michael Levin: Anatomical decision-making by cellular collectives
Thomas Ouldridge
32K views • 5 years ago
2:18:45Michael Levin: Consciousness, Biology, Universal Mind, Emergence, Cancer Research
Curt Jaimungal
237K views • 2 years ago
13:41The Physics of Life (ft. It's Okay to be Smart & PBS Eons!)
PBS Space Time
771K views • 8 years ago
19:41Michael Levin: The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life | TED
TED
575K views • 5 years ago
4:05:51Lee Cronin: Origin of Life, Aliens, Complexity, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #269
Lex Fridman
1.1M views • 4 years ago
21:56What If Alien Life Were Silicon-Based?
PBS Space Time
3.8M views • 3 years ago
3:00:21Michael Levin: Biology, Life, Aliens, Evolution, Embryogenesis & Xenobots | Lex Fridman Podcast #325
Lex Fridman
5.8M views • 4 years ago
16:01How life emerges from a simple particle motion law: Introducing the Primordial Particle System
Artificial Life Lab Graz
497K views • 9 years ago
4:00The Molecular Shape of You (Ed Sheeran Parody) | A Capella Science
acapellascience
10.2M views • 9 years ago
7:09What Is the RNA World Hypothesis?
Stated Clearly
886K views • 10 years ago
52:07What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System - NeurIPS 2018
The Artificial Intelligence Channel
103K views • 7 years ago
7:20DNA animation (2002-2014) by Drew Berry and Etsuko Uno wehi.tv #ScienceArt
WEHImovies
7.3M views • 8 years ago
6:21Your Body's Molecular Machines
Veritasium
5.1M views • 8 years ago
33:40The Man Who Took LSD and Changed The World
Veritasium
11.1M views • 1 year ago
9:09Animations of unseeable biology | Drew Berry | TED
TED
2.7M views • 14 years ago
9:35Ancient Life as Old as the Universe
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
8.6M views • 3 years ago
3 comments from Hacker News
Here is a video talking about molecular chirality and how nature really only produces one version of molecules ▶ this video . If it picked up the molecules in the atmosphere those atmospheric molecules should have been made by life on earth and those have a handedness bias depending on the molecule, some are produced right handed only or left handed only because they are made one atom at a time and need to be one handed for life to use them. Abiotic synthesis produces a 50/50 bias of left and right handed molecules because they are made all at once.
Your question reminded me of this video about "Homochirality: Why Nature Never Makes Mirror Molecules"[1] - even though it's not directly related I think it may be interesting to you. [1] ▶ this video
Can anyone comment on how producers could be isolating the the 'd' enantiomer? Are they using enzymes? Steve Mould has a great video [1] on homochirality in nature and says, "Why are all the sugar molecules that you buy from the shops right-handed? ... If you were to make some sugar for yourself in a chemistry lab by mixing some chemicals together, you would get a 50/50 mix of left-handed sugar and right-handed sugar." He goes on to describe how enzymes in nature exclusively make homochiral molecules, and since all our sugar is made by enzymes, all our sugar is homochiral. Later in the video he describes how you can filter enantiomers by finding an enzyme in nature that 'eats' the undesired enantiomer, finding the DNA for it, and coercing bacteria into producing that enzyme. This seems quite complicated and potentially out of reach for a clandestine drug-making operation. Is there another way? [1] ▶ this video