Biological molecules chose one of two structurally chiral systems which are related by reflection in a mirror. It is proposed that this choice was made, causally, by cosmic rays, which are known to play a major role in mutagenesis. It is shown that magnetically polarized cosmic rays that dominate at ground level today can impose a small, but persistent, chiral bias in the rate at which they induce structural changes in simple, chiral monomers that are the building blocks of biopolymers. A much larger effect should be present with helical biopolymers, in particular, those that may have been the progenitors of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid. It is shown that the interaction can be both electrostatic, just involving the molecular electric field, and electromagnetic, also involving a magnetic field. It is argued that this bias can lead to the emergence of a single, chiral life form over an evolutionary timescale. If this mechanism dominates, then the handedness of living...

中文翻译：

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生命的手性难题

生物分子选择了两个结构手性系统之一，它们通过在镜子中的反射相关。提出这种选择是由宇宙射线引起的，而宇宙射线已知在诱变中起主要作用。研究表明，当今在地面水平上占主导地位的磁极化宇宙射线可以在它们引起简单，手性单体（它们是生物聚合物的组成部分）的结构变化的速率上施加小的但持久的手性偏差。螺旋生物聚合物，尤其是那些可能是核糖核酸和脱氧核糖核酸的祖先的生物聚合物，应具有更大的作用。结果表明，相互作用既可以是静电（仅涉及分子电场），也可以是电磁（还涉及磁场）。有人认为，这种偏见可导致在进化的时间尺度上出现单一的手性生命形式。如果这种机制占主导地位，那么生活的权势……