Electroweak enantioselection and the origin of life.

Abstract

All biomolecules are of one hand--but what determines which hand? Why is life based on L-amino acids and D-sugars rather than D-amino acids and L-sugars? We believe the symmetry-breaker could be the weak force, which causes enantiomers to differ very slightly in energy. In this paper we present our calculations of this parity-violating energy difference (PVED) for a range of important biomolecules, and in nearly all cases it is indeed the 'natural' enantiomer which is the more stable.