26-year-old Turkish Physicist Furkan Öztürk received an award from Harvard University last month. This award came to the agenda again in the mainstream media today, saying that it was received “for finding the secret of life”. So what exactly did Öztürk and his team find, answering an important question about the origins of life?
26-year-old Turkish physicist who completed his doctorate at Harvard University Furkan Ozturk, came to the fore in the scientific world with a study published last year. Öztürk and his team studied the origins of life by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Jack Szostak.groundbreakingHe published a study described as “.
Öztürk was awarded by Harvard University last month for this work. To the 2024 Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Award was deemed worthy. This award was distributed to the most outstanding students in the department. So, what are the details of Öztürk’s research? Did he find the “secret of life” as the mainstream media reported? Let’s see.
In the research, the team tried to solve why the “homochirality” problem occurs.
Of course, it is not a correct statement to say that he found the “secret of life”. There is no study yet that can solve this. However, with their research published last June, Öztürk and his team have taken a very important step in clarifying a question that has long been wondered about our understanding of the origins of life, which began 4 billion years ago. This is the real reason why it is called groundbreaking.
In 1848, French scientist Louis Pasteur put forward the concept of “homocrality”, according to which some molecules necessary for life are mirror images of each other, just like the left and right hands. Homochirality was described as “essential” for the beginning of life. However, since then there have been no definitive answers as to why.
To explain a little more, molecules important to biology such as amino acids, sugars and RNA have mirror symmetry. in pairs They are present. This feature also chirality It is said. However, although they occur in symmetrical pairs, this is not seen in biological systems. In other words, the chiral molecules that exist in biology are not double, but only one. They are found singly instead of in pairs. DNA, RNA, and their building blocks are all right-sided, while amino acids and proteins are left-sided. This situation is called “homocrality”. That’s exactly the question. Why is mirror (chiral) symmetry broken??
It was observed that magnetic minerals may have caused the symmetry to be broken
Furkan Öztürk and his team set out to find the answer to this question. As a result, it was aimed to find a fundamental solution to the homochirality problem. In his experiments Magnetic minerals abundant in natureThey saw that structures that act as natural magnets, in a sense, can cause symmetry to be broken. Öztürk explains this as follows:
“The experiments we conducted that magnetic surfaces interact very strongly with chiral molecules and that magnetism may have led to homochirality. is showing. The ‘origin of life’ problem is almost like a puzzle, and the results we have obtained are a serious step towards solving an important part of this big puzzle. “We opened a breach in the wall, and I believe there will be more to come.”
The study is extremely important and truly groundbreaking, but it’s not like the secret to life is found!
In summary, a statement like “he found the secret of life” is completely wrong. Whereas It is not possible to answer such a complex question with a single study or a team of several people. You cannot make a car by just inventing the wheel. There are thousands more parts you need to invent and improve. Similarly, the “secret of life” is a question that will not be answered by a single study, but by multiple studies supporting each other and paving the way for greater discoveries.
However, although the study does not fully discover the secret of life, One of the biggest problems and most curious mysteries about its origin gives one of the clearest answers yet. We wish continued success to Öztürk, who believes in the future of further work. We hope to see more such groundbreaking work.