Table of Contents

Tracing Life’s Origin: From Amino Acids to Space Mission ROSETTA.- Stereochemistry for the Study of the Origin of Life.- Minority Report: Life’s Chiral Molecules of Opposite Handedness.- When Crystals Deliver Chirality to Life.- When Parity Falls: The Weak Nuclear Interaction.- Chiral Fields: Light, Magnetism, and Chirality.- Key to the Prebiotic Origin of Amino Acids.- A New Record for Chiral Molecules in Meteorites.- The New Space Race: Chiral Molecules on Comets and on Mars.- Accelerating the Carousel: Amplification Mechanisms.

Reviews

From the reviews: "This recent book by Uwe Meierhenrich … should be of interest to a wide audience of (astro) chemists, (astro) biologists, physicists, and geologists. … The book is well referenced … and also contains a useful index plus an appendix on amino acids found in the Murchion meteorite. … Overall, this is an excellent and welcome contribution to the field. It should be essential reading for anyone concerned with the far-reaching and exciting subject of chirobiogenesis … ." (Pedro Cintas, Chirality, 2009) "The book … is of interest to a very broad readership covering the whole spectrum of theoreticians, (including even philosophers), chemists, physicists, biologists, astronomers, and space engineers interested in the fascinating subject of the origins of life on Earth and in Space and the possibility of extant life traces on extraterrestrial bodies. … In sum I would strongly recommend Meierhenrich’s book … . The book is a ‘must’ for everybody working in or near the ever spreading realm of space technology … ." (Wolfram H.-P. Thiemann, Origin of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, Issue 1, 2009) "It is a rare event when a book both teaches and inspires. This one does both in spades. … Additional studies, which are covered in this work, look at either the enrichment or destruction of one form over the other, under conditions postulated to have existed when the Earth was young. … The book is well written and organized and provides competing experimental evidence and theories on this controversial subject. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and above." (J. M. Tomich, Choice, Vol. 46 (8), April, 2009)