Homochirality

Unravelling the Mystery of the Building Blocks of Life

An RNA-making molecule crystallizes on magnetite, which can bias the process toward a single chiral form. Source: Science

Origins Graduate Consortium member, Turkish physicist Furkan Ozturk has been awarded the 2024 Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Prize by Harvard University. It is a very distinguished science award given to a very small number of students who pass the qualification exam and excel in their research.

This prize recognizes the most outstanding experimental and theoretical research conducted by graduate students. We congratulate this Turkish young scientist for his endeavors to receive such a prize.

Jack W. Szostak — world-renowned biochemist and 2009 Nobel Prize winner — described this study as “a real breakthrough”. This research is expected to shed light on many unknowns, from the origin of life on our planet to life in space.

What is Goldhaber Prize?

Maurice Goldhaber, the scientist who gave his name to this award, carried out an experiment with his team in 2009 that demonstrated the chirality of neutrinos.

This experiment made significant contributions to particle physics by showing that all neutrinos are left-handed. This makes it even more meaningful for the Turkish physicist to receive this award for his breakthrough in a related field.