Israeli Professors Uncover Magnetic Link in Origins of Life Through Family Collaboration
A new scientific study exploring the origins of life on Earth emerged unexpectedly from a Shabbat dinner conversation between siblings, Professors Michal Sharon and Yossi Platial. Michal Sharon, a mass spectrometry expert at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and her brother Yossi Platial, a physicist and dean at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, combined their expertise to investigate the role of magnetism in molecular chirality and isotope composition, key fingerprints of life.
Their joint research, recently published in the journal Chem, addresses a longstanding mystery: why biological molecules exist predominantly in one chiral form despite natural expectations of equal left- and right-handed forms. The study focused on methionine, an amino acid, using magnetic surfaces embedded with micron-sized particles to separate left- and right-handed molecules. By labeling molecules with different carbon isotopes (carbon-12 and carbon-13), the team tracked the separation process with mass spectrometry.
Surprisingly, the magnetic surfaces not only separated molecules by chirality but also showed a preference for certain isotopic compositions, suggesting a quantum spin-related interaction between electron and nuclear spins. This dual fingerprint, chirality and isotope ratio, may have been influenced by magnetic mineral surfaces in shallow ancient lakes, supporting the hypothesis that life originated on magnetized mineral surfaces.
The findings provide experimental evidence that magnetism could have driven both the specific chirality of biological molecules and their isotopic signatures, which are used to identify traces of early life. Beyond origins-of-life insights, the research may lead to new technologies for separating molecules in pharmaceuticals and chemicals based on chirality and isotope content.
This collaboration also holds personal significance, as their father, retired physicist Dr. Zvi Platial, inspired their scientific curiosity from a young age. The project included contributions from doctoral student Ofek Verdi and other researchers from both the Weizmann Institute and Hebrew University. Their work advances understanding of how magnetic environments might have shaped the earliest biochemical processes on Earth.
