Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life

American Chemical Society ^ | April 6, 2008 | Unknown

[decimon]

Cool. I'm left-handed.

[mtbopfuyn]

Woo hoo! Left-handers dominate!

[Man50D]

The Columbia University chemistry professor said that amino acids delivered to Earth by meteorite bombardments left us with those left-handed protein units.

If that's true then why is only 3% of the world population left handed? Lefties have been and are discriminated against! I want an investigation! ;O)

[allmendream]

There need be no underlying scientific explanation for the dominance of left handed amino acids any more than there was a underlying scientific explanation for the dominance of VCR’s over Beta-max.

Once one got a little more popular, for whatever reason, everybody wanted “in” on the game.

Moreover there are still right handed amino acid using life forms extant upon the earth. And amino acids form just fine by natural synthesis here on earth, there is no prerequisite for “amino acids FROM SPAAAAACE!” and I'm not sure a 10 to 20% bias towards left handed amino acids caused by meteorites being exposed to polarizing light added to the pool of terrestrial amino acids has much explanatory power.

Just my 0.02.

[RouxStir]

Humm, does this explain why college professors swing left?

[presently no screen name]

Lefties have been and are discriminated against! I want an investigation!

The investigation found 'lefties' have a hanging chad in their DNA.

[RoadTest]

Fairy tales.

[BigCinBigD]

Maybe Q was right.

[Lancey Howard]

Hmm. I use both hands interchangeably. I’m amphibious.

[jwalsh07]

“These meteorites were bringing in what I call the ‘seeds of chirality,’” stated Breslow. “If you have a universe that was just the mirror image of the one we know about, then in fact, presumably it would have right-handed amino acids. That’s why I’m only half kidding when I say there is a guy on the other side of the universe with his heart on the right hand side.”

Don't need a mirror image universe. If the guy lives in a town of 10,000 folks, about ten of them have their heart biased to the right side of the chest.

[Man50D]

The investigation found 'lefties' have a hanging chad in their DNA.

Allegedly found by who? Righties?

[grjr21]

LOL

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

BS. Postulating that life on Earth arrived through a meteorite pushes the explanation for life on to an impossible-to-determine other planet.
Stupid.
It arose on Earth.

[plan2succeed.org]

A fascinating theory. It must be nearly impossible to prove this. I suppose some meteors will need to be isolated before they become meteorites. One would have to examine meteors before they become “contaminated” by the Earth and its atmosphere. Right now, such a thing is the stuff of science fiction.

[count-your-change]

From The American Society of Imbibing Too Many Chemicals”, “It all came from meteorites! How do I know? Because I just said it did and that's proof enough for me. Research? I'll check what I said. Yep, research confirms what I said. Now write up a study and..blah,blah, blah.”

[decimon]

Southpaws-are-better-than-you-are ping.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I remember when this happened.

[decimon]

I’m amphibious.

Should I be so gullible as to believe you are gillable?

[BradyLS]

BS. Postulating that life on Earth arrived through a meteorite pushes the explanation for life on to an impossible-to-determine other planet. Stupid. It arose on Earth.

Hey! What happened to the old chestnut about the comet that hits the Earth, melts, and then a bolt of lightning starts the Life Cycle chain???

But I have to agree with you. It's ironic that we have to have faith in these scientists that (the seeds of) life began somewhere else, was blown into outer space, and somehow found our world.

Yeah! Yeah! That's a LOT easier to swallow than a belief in God! /s

It's always something--anything--else.

[tokenatheist]

Why?