Molecules Have Hands?

First posted on 02-18-2008

The University of Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences will host its first public lecture of 2008 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the Space Center Theater. Bob Gawley, a member of the center and a Distinguished Professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, will present a lecture titled “Why Did Alice Say to Kitty ‘Perhaps Looking-Glass Milk Isn’t Good to Drink?’ A Brief Explanation of Handedness, From Weak Bosons to the Double Helix.”

Admission is free and open to all members of the university community and the public.

Some humans are right-handed, some are left- handed, and Gawley points out that the same is true, in a sense, for molecules. For example, life would not be possible if the amino acids in proteins did not have the same sense of handedness, or what scientists call homochirality, after the Greek word “cheir,” for hand. All but one of the amino acids in proteins is chiral, and has “L” handedness (for levo, which is Latin for “left.") In carbohydrates all sugars are “D” (for dextro, Latin for “right.") What this means, why it matters, how it might have happened, and the relevance to extraterrestrial organics will be explained in Gawley’s lecture. Fair warning: You’ll never look at nature the same way again.

Gawley, who teaches in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, received his doctoral degree from Duke University in 1975. His current research focuses on asymmetric synthesis using chiral organometallics; development of new synthetic methods; development of new sensors for marine toxins and other xenobiotics; and natural products isolation and structure elucidation.

Refreshments will be available after his talk.

For further information, visit the center online at http://spacecenter.uark.edu.