Paper detail

Did bio-homochirality arise from spin-polarized electron?

The origin of bio-homochirality is a subject of much debate. The emergence of chirality and life on earth is a break of symmetry to be compared with the breaks of symmetry in the evolution of the universe. Based on a perspective of asymmetry transfer, the chirality at molecular level might stem from electron spin at subatomic level. Accordingly, in this paper a spin-induced chiral selectivity (SICS) mechanism and its outreach are introduced and discussed. The stress force or spin torque derived from quantum electrodynamics (QED) might be the driving force for the transfer of asymmetry and the formation of molecular chirality. Some recent experimental results seem to support the SICS conjecture. If spin-polarized electrons (SPEs) did cause life to become chirally selective, a magnetic half-metal material such as greigite (Fe3S4), a mineral present in a primordial site where life could have emerged, might act as a spin filter to produce SPEs, which then induced the asymmetric synthesis of chiral molecules via the SICS mechanism. All these tentative thoughts may help explain how homochirality and life could have arisen on the early Earth.