Paper detail

A testable hypothesis on the possible role of electron spin in the origin of bio-homochirality

The emergence of biomolecular homochirality is a critical open question in the field of origins of life. In order to seek out an answer to this unsettled issue, a number of mechanisms have been offered over time, but it still remains a great challenge to date. In this paper, based on the hydrothermal vent theory for the origins of life, I tentatively put forward a new hypothesis that the prebiotic emergence of the uniform chirality of biomolecules might have been specifically determined by the spin state of electrons during their prebiotic syntheses on the surfaces of greigite, a mineral which has been frequently argued to have played an important role in the evolutionary context of life. An experimental model to test the hypothesis has also been proposed. Taken into consideration the possible widespread existence of greigite in submarine hydrothermal vent systems which have been frequently argued as a potential cradle for the origins of life, the suggested model, if could be experimentally demonstrated, may be suggestive of where and how life originated on early Earth.