Sacramento
Reasons to Believe, Sacramento Network presents
Homochirality: An Ongoing Challenge for Naturalistic Origin of Life Theories
on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at PASCO scientific, Inc., Roseville CA at 7:00 PM
presented by Fred Luffman, E.E.
The origin of life is a profound mystery. Despite decades of research and the use of sophisticated tools that disclose in ever more detail the extraordinarily complex inner workings of living cells, how the cell came to be is as much of a mystery now as it ever has been. Of the many features of living cells that are challenging for naturalistic explanations, the problem of homochirality seems particularly difficult; so much so that some origin of life researchers have been driven to look beyond earth for satisfactory explanations. In this presentation we will be exploring at a non-technical level the chiral nature (molecular "mirror images") of pre-biotic molecules that form the building blocks of life itself, why chirality is crucial to the construction of proteins and therefore to living cells, and what recent research has revealed. Our discussion will end with a look at the philosophical/religious implications of the origin of life debate.
For a map to the meeting location you may follow the link below or the directions at the bottom of the page. If you don't see the location on the Google map just click the underlined street address to the left of the map. Hope to see you there!
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Getting to PASCO is similar to getting to William Jessup University for those of you that attended RTB meetings there. From Roseville, take Hwy 65 to Blue Oaks Blvd and exit there. Bear right at the exit and the road will take you back over Hwy 65. Keep going straight until the first traffic light which will be Foothills Blvd (there's a '76 gas station at the corner). Turn right and proceed until the road dead ends - about 0.5 miles. You're there! The entrance to the training room is at that corner of the building. The door is card controlled but someone will be there to let you in. For those of you with GPS navigators the address is 10101 Foothills Blvd., Roseville, CA. Note that this location is for this month only, and we will return to our regular meeting location next month (unless future postings indicate otherwise).
