Results of the Second Stage of the Investigation of the Radiation Mechanism of Chiral Influence (RAMBAS-2 Experiment)

Results of the second stage of the RAMBAS (RAdiation Mechanism of Biomolecular ASymmetry) experiment on investigation of the radiation mechanism of the influence on chiral molecules are presented. Optical activity of samples of racemic mixtures of amino acids with heavy metals was compared prior to and after irradiation by electron flux from a radioactive source. It is found that the irradiation results in asymmetric degradation of both complexes and amino acids and in production of chiral asymmetry of the samples under study. These results confirm the conclusions inferred from the first stage of the RAMBAS experiment and could be important for the solution of the origin-of-life and biological homochirality problems.     

Study of the relationship between eye movements and the geometry of fovea

The objective of this research was to compare the features of the shape of the foveolar area with the characteristics of eye movements in reading. To measure the size of the fovea, we used the method of optical coherence tomography of the retina. Based on this method, the diameter of the upper part of fovea (fovea diameter) and fovea bottom (foveola diameter) were determined. We found a negative correlation between the fovea diameter and fixation duration and positive correlations at the level of tendency between the foveola diameter and the number of saccades performed and between the foveola diameter and the number of characters captured by eye per fixation.