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Asimov wrote about precisely this, and hypothesised, well, exactly this, in his essay “The asymmetry of life” in the collection “The Left Hand of the Electron” - in 1972 - right down to gamma ray chirality due to electron spin asymmetry affecting an initial randomly distributed population.

See pages 65-67 of the below (pdf pages, not book pages).

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/asimov-electron.p...



Asimov refers to a 1968 paper, and a Nature article [1] refers to a 1967 paper by other researchers, so it seems like it may have been a common hypothesis at the time. However, Asimov doesn't refer to cosmic rays like the original article, but the Nature article does.

[1] https://www.nature.com/news/force-of-nature-gave-life-its-as...


This is absolutely incredible. I’ve never read Asimov beyond one or two short stories, now I feel compelled to read his grander works. What an insanely keen mind.


Be sure to read his paper on the properties of resublimated thiotimoline. It's a disgrace he never got a Nobel prize for this.


In case anyone was wondering what this referred to (like I did): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiotimoline

> Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by American biochemist and science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It was first described in a spoof scientific paper titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" in 1948. The major peculiarity of the chemical is its "endochronicity": it starts dissolving before it makes contact with water.

> Asimov went on to write three additional short stories, each describing different properties or uses of thiotimoline.


Nice way to spread the story :)




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