This is a cool down-to-Earth implication of an astronomical discovery (pun intended)
New telescope surveys show that several star-forming regions have much higher degree of polarized light than suspected. Highly polarized light is more likely to destroy right- vs. left- oriented molecules.
If you believe that Earth-based amino acids originally cames from interstellar gas/dust clouds, then this is a plausible explanation for why our biology is left-handed.
The theorized reason for preferred polarization in star-forming regions is higher-than-normal magnetic fields which aligns dust particles in the cloudy surroundings, blocking one orientation of the reflected light.
(I might have some details wrong since I’m inferring a lot from this one article, but I like the story)
Originally shared by David Brin
A major mystery of life on Earth is that organisms are exclusively made up of left-handed amino acids. (Chirality.) One theory is that star-forming regions sometimes exhibit circular polarization of the light from a powerful star, and this polarization may affect the molecules forming near other new stars in the region, causing most or all of the pre-biotic “soup” molecules to prefer one orientation over the other. Hence, sibling systems born from the same nebula might tend all to be the same molecular twist… and another region will be opposite, with nothing for the first group to eat.