3 ms·
Well, that's the question isn't it? Is it just a frozen accident, or is there some nonarbitrary reason for the left-handed molecules to be favoured?
by griffzhowl 2y ago
Well, that's the question isn't it? Is it just a frozen accident, or is there some nonarbitrary reason for the left-handed molecules to be favoured?
- madaxe_again 2y agoPerhaps aliens eat right handed life, but left handed life is poison to them. Seriously. It would be a pretty good selector, and said “alien” need be no more than a snippet of RNA - and it would be entirely gone from earth now, eliminated by us sinister life forms. The only evidence would be the ubiquitous absence of R-entantiomers in life. I think I might be lifting from Asimov - The Left Hand of the Electron.
- Terr_ 2y agoThat kinda kicks the can down the road though, because we are faced with almost the same set of questions except about the hypothetical alien life.
- throwawaymaths 2y agoSure but that might be an unknowable problem. What if the difference in likelihood were 60/40. You could go down all sorts of rabbit holes and none of them would truly be falsifiable unless you observed an enantiomeric lifeform on some distant planet.