The origin of life is a fascinating, unresolved problem whose deciphering would have
important scientific, epistemological and social implications. Over time, philosophers and …

Self‐replication is a fundamental concept. The idea of an entity that can repeatedly create
more of itself has captured the imagination of many thinkers from von Neumann to …

When I am called upon to teach fluid mechanics, I always show students a copy of Newton's
Principia. I do this for a number of reasons, not least of which is the connection I hope they …

Autocatalytic models for the emergence of homochirality have been of interest for more than
half a century. The sole experimental example of such an amplifying autocatalytic reaction is …

There is a need for the preparation of enantiomerically pure compounds for various
applications. An efficient approach to achieve this goal is asymmetric catalysis. The chiral …

The single-handedness of biological molecules has fascinated scientists and laymen alike
since Pasteur's first painstaking separation of the enantiomorphic crystals of a tartrate salt …

The net rate of a reversible chemical reaction is the difference between unidirectional rates
of traversal along forward and reverse reaction paths. In a multistep reaction sequence, the …

The reflection (or 'mirror') symmetry of space is among the fundamental symmetries of
physics. It is connected to the conservation law for the quantum number parity and a …

Ever since Pasteur noticed that tartrate crystals exist in two non-superimposable forms that
are mirror images of one another—as are left and right hands—the phenomenon of chirality …

Astrobiology is the science that seeks to understand the story of life in our universe.
Astrobiology includes investigation of the conditions that are necessary for life to emerge …