those sinister amino acids

A couple months ago I blogged about a putative advance in the study of chirality, back when Meir Shinitzky figured that water's properties might explain why amino acids are left-handed. I wrote, "The problem isn't yet solved to everyone's satisfaction, but at least demonstrates that saying 'Science will never / can never' is often a bet against the odds."

Now, in an important new finding that builds on Shinitzky's work,

Donna Blackmond at Imperial College London and colleagues dissolved a mixture of solid L and D versions of the amino acid serine in water. They found that a small difference in the initial proportion of one version gets amplified in the resulting solution. So a 100:1 mixture of L- and D-serine produces a solution made up almost entirely of L-serine, but so does a 100:99 mixture (Nature, vol 441, p 621).

"It doesn't matter what proportions of solid amino acids you throw in, you always get exactly the same proportions in solution," says Blackmond, whose team has found a similar effect with other amino acids. She says she is surprised that no one noticed the effect before.

I'll wager a left-handed shovel that the origin of chirality will be explained to (pretty much) everybody's satisfaction within the next decade. And I, unlike certain blowhards we all know and love, keep my wagers.