Scientific Correspondence
Nature 389, 804 (23 October 1997) | doi:10.1038/39777
Extraterrestrial handedness
Stephen F. Mason1
M. H. Engel and S. A. Macko1 tentatively ascribe the enantiomeric excess of L-amino acids in extraterrestrial sources to the circular polarization of synchrotron radiation, from a neutron star, incident on the interstellar molecular cloud from which the Solar System formed (see also the accompanying News and Views article by C. F. Chyba2). But the Kuhn-Condon zero-sum rule3,4 for the rotational strengths of a chiral molecule requires that broad-band circularly polarized radiation cannot discriminate between the enantiomers of a racemic substance in photochemical reactions.
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