Sarah Walker

I think it's a small space. But chemistry is very large. There might be a lot of them out there, but we don't know.

I think it's a small space. But chemistry is very large. There might be a lot of them out there, but we don't know.

I think it's a small space. But chemistry is very large. There might be a lot of them out there, but we don't know.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah. I mean, there's also all kinds of other weird properties that happen around this kind of phase boundary. So this other project that I have in my lab is focused on the origin of chirality, which is, you know, thinking about, so chirality is this property of molecules that they can come in mirror image forms. So like, just like chirality means hand. So you're

Yeah. I mean, there's also all kinds of other weird properties that happen around this kind of phase boundary. So this other project that I have in my lab is focused on the origin of chirality, which is, you know, thinking about, so chirality is this property of molecules that they can come in mirror image forms. So like, just like chirality means hand. So you're

Yeah. I mean, there's also all kinds of other weird properties that happen around this kind of phase boundary. So this other project that I have in my lab is focused on the origin of chirality, which is, you know, thinking about, so chirality is this property of molecules that they can come in mirror image forms. So like, just like chirality means hand. So you're

Your left and right hand are what's called non-superimposable because if you try to lay one on the other, you can't actually lay them directly on top of each other. And that's the property of being a mirror image.

Your left and right hand are what's called non-superimposable because if you try to lay one on the other, you can't actually lay them directly on top of each other. And that's the property of being a mirror image.

Your left and right hand are what's called non-superimposable because if you try to lay one on the other, you can't actually lay them directly on top of each other. And that's the property of being a mirror image.

So there's this sort of perplexing property of the chemistry of life that no one's been able to really adequately explain that all of the amino acids in proteins are left-handed and all of the bases in RNA and DNA are right-handed. And yet the chemistry of these proteins building block units, amino acids, and nucleobases is the same for left and right-handed.

So there's this sort of perplexing property of the chemistry of life that no one's been able to really adequately explain that all of the amino acids in proteins are left-handed and all of the bases in RNA and DNA are right-handed. And yet the chemistry of these proteins building block units, amino acids, and nucleobases is the same for left and right-handed.

So there's this sort of perplexing property of the chemistry of life that no one's been able to really adequately explain that all of the amino acids in proteins are left-handed and all of the bases in RNA and DNA are right-handed. And yet the chemistry of these proteins building block units, amino acids, and nucleobases is the same for left and right-handed.

So you have to have like some kind of symmetry breaking where you go from these chemistries that seem entirely equivalent to only having one chemistry take over as the dominant form. And for a long time, I had been really, I actually did my PhD on the origin of chirality. I was working on it as like a symmetry breaking problem in physics. This is how I got started in the origin of life.

So you have to have like some kind of symmetry breaking where you go from these chemistries that seem entirely equivalent to only having one chemistry take over as the dominant form. And for a long time, I had been really, I actually did my PhD on the origin of chirality. I was working on it as like a symmetry breaking problem in physics. This is how I got started in the origin of life.

So you have to have like some kind of symmetry breaking where you go from these chemistries that seem entirely equivalent to only having one chemistry take over as the dominant form. And for a long time, I had been really, I actually did my PhD on the origin of chirality. I was working on it as like a symmetry breaking problem in physics. This is how I got started in the origin of life.

And then I left it for a long time because I thought it was like one of the most boring problems in the original life, but I've come back to it because I think there's something really deep going on here related to this like combinatorial explosion of the space of possibilities. But just to get to that point, like this feature of this handedness has been the main focus, but...

And then I left it for a long time because I thought it was like one of the most boring problems in the original life, but I've come back to it because I think there's something really deep going on here related to this like combinatorial explosion of the space of possibilities. But just to get to that point, like this feature of this handedness has been the main focus, but...