Michael Yada

Michael Sterling
Chem 112LA
November 30, 2014

Critical Analysis Report

Carsten and Charles had a heated debate about the origins of life in the universe. They
discussed the chirality of amino acids and how they could or couldnt be responsible for the
formations of the building blocks of life. Eventually they came across a document by Noorduin,
et al. Emergence of a Single Solid Chiral State from a Nearly Racemic Amino Acid Derivative
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 1158-1159. He went in depth of how R and S solid-phase crystals
undergo a process called Ostwalds ripening. Oswalds ripening was the process in which large
crystals grow at the cost of smaller ones regardless of their handedness (Noorduin pg. 1158).
An analysis of Noorduins experiment explained the idea of selective crystallization, a proof of
principle that a slight excess of one enantiomer would result in a complete conversion to a single
enantiomer over an extended period of time, and therefore helped me decide to agree with
Charles theory that amino acids were responsible for the initial formations of proteins.
To begin talk about this theory we must first understand the idea of selective
crystallization. In Noorduins experiment he found that when he mixed a solution with R and S
amino acid surrogates one of the amino acid surrogates crystallizing completely, while the other
was left as a part of the solution. The reasoning behind this was because of Oswalds ripening
and Le Chateliers principle. In Oswalds ripening it stated larger particles are more
energetically favored than smaller particles (Wikipedia). The reasoning behind this was because
the more particles a crystal had, the more pulling power it had. This meant that when one crystal
of R or S type of amino acid surrogate would start to form, then the surrogate that had initially

Michael Yada
Michael Sterling
Chem 112LA
November 30, 2014

more or larger crystals would continue to grow at a faster rate. Now you may be thinking why
wouldnt the other type of amino acid form into a crystal as well? Le Chateliers Principle about
equilibrium in a system explains that. Le Chateliers Principle states that when there is a change
in concentration of a chemical this will cause the equilibrium of the system to shift to one side.
In Noorduins experiments when one of the amino acids formed more crystals it eventually
shifted the reaction. The loss in one of the groups would result in the system remaking more of
that same amino acid, thus causing this exponential crystallization. This showed how once one of
the reactants (R and S) became more plentiful than the other it just pushed the reaction to make
100% of that amino acid. So, this showed this idea of selective crystallization. Although this is
true, it wouldnt be possible without the DBU because the DBU allows the reaction to go back in
forth in equilibrium.
Finally, we can take everything into account and use it to prove that Charles theory is the
most probable cause of the origin of life. The time it takes for natural evolution to occur in
animals is thousands to millions of years. With the Earth being approximately four billion years
old, evolution of amino acids could have easily occurred to produce the first building blocks of
life. This is proven in Noorduins experiment when he uses an amino acid surrogate, DBU, the
movement of glass beads and magnetic stirring to recreate natural evolution in amino acids. This
is all plausible because we dont know what the first amino acids were like on Earth, so the
surrogate amino acid may have been identical to the past ones. Also, the movement of glass
beads and magnetic stirring act as an appropriate method to mimic natural evolution. The

Michael Yada
Michael Sterling
Chem 112LA
November 30, 2014

banging of the beads and stirring were to act as close to the mysterious conditions our old system
was like.
Counter-arguments have arose disputing the fact that the surrogate is not an appropriate
comparison because of its chiral center. The current amino acids we have now have a more
acidic hydrogen on the carboxylic acid group. This prevents base-catalyzed racemization from
being the most favorable acid-base reaction. The thing is we dont know what the amino acids
looked like or where they had originally come from. Scientists have come up with a disputed
theory that the first forms of chiral molecules came from outer-space. This idea was later
supported by the Murchison meteorite which was found in Australia in 1969 and had traces of
amino acids and other simple organic matter. When scientists examined these materials they
found that there was more of one enantiomer than the other. Consequently, they found unnatural
amino acids on the meteorite. The most important thing we can take from this is the theory of
extraterrestrial amino acids.
Following this idea of extraterrestrial amino acids has caused many arguments to ensue
about the origin of the meteorite and possible false-positives that could have been found on the
meteorite. Although, there is no way for us to determine the origin of a meteorite that came
crashing down millions of miles away we can still take into account its trajectory. When a
meteorite hits Earth it has to pass through our atmosphere. After this occurs a lot of particles are
burned up or knocked off of the meteorite. Then, when it lands it can possibly get more organic
matter from Earth to fall onto it. Throughout this entire process organic matter is being knocked

Michael Yada
Michael Sterling
Chem 112LA
November 30, 2014

off and added onto the meteorite on the surface, but not on the inside of it. When scientists
studied the meteorite they found unnatural amino acids. These unnatural amino acids are less
susceptible to false-positives because these amino acids cannot be found naturally on Earth. Now
that we have confirmed these unnatural amino acids to be real we can take into account
evolution. These unnatural amino acids that may have been on Earth billions of years ago could
have evolved into the amino acids we encounter today.
In conclusion, Noorduins experiment suggested a reason for the enhancement of
chirality, which could have caused a shift in the equilibrium of the amino acid system, thus
resulting in an excess of one of the enantiomers. This still begs the question: where did this
initial excess of amino acids come from? This excess may have appeared through a variety of
factors. It could have been that the meteorite came off an asteroid which was dominated by one
enantiomer on that particular side of the asteroid. Another plausible answer would be that the
other type of enantiomer burned up while passing through the atmosphere, meanwhile the other
enantiomer was more resistant to heat or had the structure to latch onto the meteorite better, thus
allowing it to survive. I believe that life had to have come from somewhere and what better place
to arise from than outer-space. There is no other place where the amino acids could have
spawned from, and based off of our own genetic compositions the origin of life started with the
first amino acid sequence.