Chirality is a fundamental, persistent, but often overlooked feature of all living organisms on the molecular level as well as on the macroscopic scale. The high degree of preference for only one of two possible mirror image forms in Nature, often called biological homochirality is a puzzling, and not yet fully understood, phenomenon.

This book covers biological homochirality from an interdisciplinary approach - contributions range from synthetic chemists, theoretical topologists and physicists, from palaeontologists and biologists to space scientists and representatives of the pharmaceutical and materials industries.
Topics covered include -
theory of biochirality,
origins of biochirality,
autocatalysis with amplification of chirality,
macroscopic (present) biochirality,
fossil records of chiral organisms - paleochirality,
extraterrestrial origin of chirality,
exceptions to the rule of biological homochirality, D-amino acids,
chemical transfer of chirality,
P effects, and
polarised radiation chemistry.

Biological Chirality describes this occurrence, its history, and early research around the topic. The work covers analytical methods for observing the phenomenon, providing current techniques and practice and discussing the asymmetric morphology of certain living organisms, such as the position of the heart and liver in humans and the exceptions to biological homochirality seen in D-Amino Acids. In addition, it explores the requirement of enantioselectivity prepared pharmaceuticals to address enantioselectivities biomolecules, a major challenge in today's organic chemistry. Finally, the work considers the possible origin of biological homochirality, as well as the outlook for future research in this area.

Advances in Asymmetric Autocatalysis and Related Topics provides various viewpoints on the important developments in asymmetric autocatalysis that have occurred in the past few years, also including brand new information in the field. Asymmetric autocatalysis is a chemical reaction which leads from achiral starting materials to chiral products, and in which the product accelerates its own formation reaction (conventional catalysis) and promotes the prevalence of its own chiral configuration (asymmetric induction). The combination of these two effects in the same reaction was unprecedented before 1995 when it was first described by Kenso SOAI at the Tokyo University of Science. Since then, several new combinations of this effect have been found, most intriguingly the possibility of absolute asymmetric synthesis, which is the spontaneous formation of the excess of one of the enantiomers of the product, a dream of organic chemists for more than a century. The book contains expert-contributed chapters that describe the most exciting recent developments in the field of the Soai reaction and in related topics, ranging from mechanistic studies and theoretical research, to very practical problems in chiral syntheses and products.

Following on from Advances in BioChirality, Progress in Biological Chirality provides a unique summary and review of the most recent developments in the field of biochirality. Living organisms use only one enantiomer of chiral molecules in the majority of biologically important processes. The exact origin and mechanisms for this surprising selectivity are not yet known. This book discusses current research aimed at identifying the scientific reasons that may contribute to this phenomenon.

Progress in Biological Chirality takes an interdisciplinary approach to this exciting field, covering a wide range of topics, such as, theory, palaeontology and food technology, to name but a few. This book presents findings via a broad spectrum of scientific approaches making it an excellent overview of Biological Chirality, suitable for postgraduate students, practitioners and researchers in the field of chemistry, biochemistry, biology, palaeontology, and food science with an interest in Chirality.
* This book contains 32 chapters written by Authors, who are leading authorities in the field
* Presents the most recent research taking place in this highly challenging field
* Contains both reference material for the specialist and provides an overview for those who are interested in the fundamental problems of biology and chemistry.

To leave our planet liveable in the next millennium mankind is forced to find environmentally friendly ways in solving the problems of everyday life. Among others, technologies of producing chemicals, absolutely necessary for maintaining a comfortable life, have to be modified, in some instances fundamentally changed now, or in the very near future.

Developing new technologies requires strong and innovative fundamental research. In order to provide opportunity for crossfertilization the Federation of European Zeolite Associations (FEZA) decided to organise a conference, where researchers from academia as well as industry can meet, exchange ideas, show and discuss research efforts and results concerning the development of environmentally friendly processes and technologies.

The conference, and thus the proceedings are divided into two main parts. The first part contains works concerning the synthesis, modification and characterisation of zeolitic materials as catalyst candidates in environmentally friendly technologies. Works in the second part describe various applications starting from developing highly selective reactions for the fine chemical industry, through waste-water treatment to applying zeolite for formulating bacteria for pest control.