Researchers describe a new way to measure the ratio of left- and right-handed amino acids (enantiomers) in extremely small samples, using a mechanically controllable break junction: a gold electrode pair separated by a molecular-scale gap that molecules pass through, producing a quantum tunneling current. The shape of that tunneling current reveals which handedness is present, which matters because tiny meteorite samples don't contain enough material for conventional mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography. The team trained a machine learning model on known mixtures of five amino acids and found its predicted enantiomer ratios came close to the actual ratios, setting up a test on real-world samples.
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The paper is from Osaka University and Georgia Tech, published October 5, 2026 in Nature Communications, two days before the chemistry Nobel announcement.
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Both enantiomers actually generate a tunneling current; it's the waveform features of the signal, not whether current appears at all, that distinguish left from right handed molecules.
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In one test mixture with an actual 20-20-20 split across amino acid types, the model's predictions came within about two percentage points for most bands, off by five on only one.
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Conventional chirality detection methods need a large amount of source material, which is why a new technique was needed for sparse samples like those from meteorites.
ChemistryNeuroscienceNobel PrizeParticle PhysicsAstrobiology