The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1848, when Louis Pasteur was a young chemist still years away from discovering how to sterilize milk, he discovered something ...

Scientists have uncovered a surprising role for calcium in shaping the building blocks of life. Their study reveals that calcium ions help determine the molecular 'handedness' (chirality) of tartaric ...

Chiral gold nanostars show how molecular asymmetry transfers to high-symmetry nanoparticles, producing structures with distinctive optical behavior and enhanced molecular detection. (Nanowerk ...

Electron spin can create differences between mirror-image molecules, a potential explanation for why life favors one ...

Molecular chirality is a fundamental feature of living systems and asymmetric chemistry, yet its origin remains unresolved ...

Phospholipids are major components of plasma membrane and organelle membranes that maintain the integrity of the cell or organelles by creating a semi-impermeable barrier from their outside ...

Some event or series of events early in the history of life must have “broken the mirror,” as biochemists put it, throwing life into molecular asymmetry. Scientists have debated why life became ...