The single chirality of biological molecules in terrestrial biology raises more questions than
certitudes about its origin. The emergence of biological homochirality (BH) and its …

Spontaneous deracemizations is a challenging, multidisciplinary subject in current chirality
research. In the absence of any chiral inductors, an achiral substance or a racemic …

One basic principle regulating self-assembly is associated with the asymmetry of constituent
building blocks or packing models. Using asymmetry to manipulate molecular-level devices …

The chemistry of abiotic nucleotide synthesis of RNA and DNA in the context of their
prebiotic origins on early earth is a continuing challenge. How did (or how can) the …

Upon irradiation in the presence of a chiral benzophenone catalyst (5 mol%), a racemic
mixture of a given chiral imidazolidine-2, 4-dione (hydantoin) can be converted almost …

Over the last two decades ratchet mechanisms have transformed the understanding and
design of stochastic molecular systems—biological, chemical and physical—in a move away …

Hypotheses of the origins of RNA and DNA are generally centred on the prebiotic synthesis
of a pristine system (pre-RNA or RNA), which gives rise to its descendent. However, a lack of …

Helical nanofibres play key roles in many biological processes. Entanglements between
helices can aid gelation by producing thick, interconnected fibres, but the details of this …

The field of prebiotic chemistry has been dedicated over decades to finding abiotic routes
towards the molecular components of life. There is nowadays a handful of prebiotically …

It has been argued that the historical nature of evolution makes it a highly path-dependent
process. Under this view, the outcome of evolutionary dynamics could have resulted in …