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Contenuto archiviato il 2024-05-07

The electroweak origin of biomolecular chirality

Obiettivo



Research objectives and content
All biomolecules are of one hand: biochemistry is homochiral But what determines which hand? Why is life based on L-amino acids and not D? The answer may lie in the weak force, mediated by the Zr boson, which makes the natural L amino acids very slightly more stable than their ' unnatural" mirror images. I shall be calculating this parity-violating energy difference (PVED) between enantiomers for a range of important biomolecules using computer programs developed at Cambridge. I will assist in writing new computer code to improve these calculations and extend the calculations to larger molecules. I may also assist in a related project to detect homochirality as a signature of extra-terrestrial life. Light from Earth-like planets round nearby stars should be circularly polarized from scattering by optically active biomaterials such as leaves, and calculations of this reflection circular dichroism will be needed in preparation for possible detection by the ESA space interferometer being considered for launch in 2015.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

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Argomento(i)

Invito a presentare proposte

Dati non disponibili

Meccanismo di finanziamento

RGI - Research grants (individual fellowships)

Coordinatore

University of Cambridge
Contributo UE
Nessun dato
Indirizzo
Lensfield Road
CB2 1EW Cambridge
Regno Unito
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Partecipanti (1)