BAD HARDWARE WEEK

Long time suspected, now finally proved. Our basic building blocks are from the the outer space. What that fact has in common with Bible's description of life origins? Sadly, nothing. What more: no water, no symmetry breaking needed for life to start.

Some have suggested that polarised starlight preferentially destroyed right-handed amino acids on asteroids. But this alone couldn't explain why the meteorite bias is so strong.

Now Glavin and colleague Jason Dworkin have shown that water amplified the asymmetry.

They studied an amino acid called isovaline in six meteorites that showed evidence of ancient exposure to liquid water for about 1000 to 10,000 years. The longer water persisted in the rock, the stronger its left-handed isovaline bias, the team found.