Quote:
Originally Posted by ThaVirus
Explain...
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Certain molecules possess a trait called chirality, or handedness. The chemical formula is the same, but one branch is a mirror image that you can't superimpose on the other molecule (think about your right and left hands). This usually doesn't affect much chemistry, except with other chiral molecules.
For example, you cannot have a peptide chain unless all of the amino acids are of the same handedness, because an S-amino acid won't be able to form a chain of bonds with two D-amino acids (S, sinister, means left and D, dextro, means right). Without those chains, you don't have proteins, thus, no life.
No one knows why this happened. More than likely, it was just a quirk of genetic randomness.