Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1700, USA. kahr@chem.washington.edu
Phthalic acid rapidly crystallizing in thin aqueous films is deposited radially and rhythmically as dendritic banded spherulites that have heterochiral meso-textures in hemi-circles. The chiral fields differentially scatter left and right circularly polarized light. A scenario for chiral amplification and the origin of biomolecular homochirality is thus proposed that combines the influences of crystals and light. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.