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From: dmr@grigg.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: stereoisomers
Message-ID: <1066@grigg.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Dec-84 01:50:33 EST
Article-I.D.: grigg.1066
Posted: Wed Dec  5 01:50:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 03:02:51 EST
Lines: 17

Hmmm, and all this time I had thought that L stereoisomers
rotated polarized light to the left, and D to the right.
That is, the labels are not arbitrary with respect to particular
chemicals, only in the original choice of sign.

An article in Nature about 6 weeks ago proposed an explanation
for the preponderance of L-amino acids in living forms.
It calculates a small effect from the (non parity-conserving)
weak force that would make the L forms more favorable energetically.
I found it less than completely convincing.  (The energy differential
was, at most, about 1 part in 1e-17).

By the way, thanks to Ray Miller for posting the SOR papers.
Many people have wanted to know what creationists actually believe,
and these remarkable documents certainly tell us.

	Dennis Ritchie