On 6 May, 23:33, Ramon F Herrera <ra... at (no spam) conexus.net> wrote:
http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6235783.html

-RFH

Were they racemic or optically active? You see people are proposing to
drill through the ice of Europa to find life. In fact a simple laser
test for optical activity would establish the existence of life one
way or the other.

The "complex organics" on Enceladus had molecular weights of about 40.

"John Park" <af250 at (no spam) FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in message
news:g002fb$13i$1 at (no spam) theodyn.ncf.ca...
| Ian Parker (ianparker2 at (no spam) gmail.com) writes:
| > On 6 May, 23:33, Ramon F Herrera <ra... at (no spam) conexus.net> wrote:
| >> http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6235783.html
|
| >> -RFH
|
| > Were they racemic or optically active? You see people are proposing to
| > drill through the ice of Europa to find life. In fact a simple laser
| > test for optical activity would establish the existence of life one
| > way or the other.
|
| The "complex organics" on Enceladus had molecular weights of about 40.
| You'll have real trouble thinking up a chiral molecule that small.
|
| --John Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose