Search for phase transitions changing molecular chirality

Since Pasteur discovered in 1848 that biological molecules possess a rotatory power, the origin of the chiral purity in living organisms has been a constant preoccupation in biology, but the problem is not solved yet. In particular, the appeal to weak interactions, a fundamental physical process which is known to violate parity, has not permitted so far to establish any firm relation between parity nonconservation and the complete dissymmetry between mirror image biological molecules. The main difficulty resides in the weakness of the physical forces, and can be overcome only when some amplification process can be proved to be at work. Recently such a mechanism was proposed, which does not seem to ask for any ad hoc new concept: due to the attractive character of the parity violating force in electro-weak interactions, a phase transition leading eventually to enantiometric purity is predicted. Phase transitions at low temperature have already been detected in biological materials, but no signature concerning the parity aspect was obtained. We undertook this year in Lyon a series of experiments to measure the rotatory power of solutions containing organic dissymmetric molecules, in order to observe if it varies with temperature. Our first measures involved cystine, which possesses a high rotatory power. No variation of this quantity was observed down to .6K. Lower temperatures will be attained in a next step. (author). 4 refs