Asri-unix.1384 net.space utzoo!decvax!cca!McLure@SRI-KL@sri-unix Mon May 3 00:19:26 1982 left-handed amino acids discovered in meteorite From: Stuart McLure Cracraft !a084 0712 30 Apr 82 AM-Amino Acids,250 Amino Acids Found In Meteorite That Crashed In Australia PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP) - Amino acids - a building block of proteins - have been found in fragments from a meteorite that crashed in Australia, a team of researchers report. Bartholomew Nagy, a geochemist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, reported in a paper published in the British journal, Nature, that the fragments contained the kind of amino acids that most commonly occur in living things. The co-author of the paper was Michael Engel of the Carnegie Institution in Washington. Nagy said he and Engel ''are not talking about extraterrestrial life.'' But a leading astrogeologist, Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, said the research ''certainly supports the idea that the starting material'' was brought to Earth by meteorites. Nagy said the specimens from the fragments contained mostly ''left-handed'' amino acids. Amino acids have turned up previously in meteorites, but Nagy said most of them contained mostly ''right-handed'' amino acids. Nagy said ''almost all'' amino acids in living organisms are left-handed. Left-handed structures turn polarized light to the left, and right-handed structures turn it to the right. Nagy said he and Engel found the amino acids in the Murchison meteorite, which crashed onto Victoria in eastern Austrailia on Sept. 20, 1969. Other researchers had looked for left-handed amino acids in the Murchison fragments, but Nagy said he and Engel were able to find them by examining a larger specimen with geochemical techniques only recently perfected. Nagy said the researchers took special steps to ensure that the specimen was not affected by earthly contaminants . ap-ny-04-30 1012EST ********** ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.