\endarray$$This model and generalisations of it have been analysed by Sandars (2003), Brandenburg et al. (2005a, b), Multimaki and Brandenburg (2005), Wattis and Coveney (2005a, b), Gleiser and Walker (2008), Gleiser et al. (2008), Coveney and Wattis (2006). Typically a classic pitchfork bifurcation is found when the fidelity (f) of the autocatalysis over the cross-catalysis is increased. One

counterintuitive effect is that increasing the cross-inhibition effect (χ) aids the bifurcation, allowing it to occur at lower values of the fidelity Gamma-secretase inhibitor parameter f. Experimental Results on Homochiralisation The Soai reaction was one of the first experiments which demonstrated that a chemical reaction could amplify initial small imbalances in chiral balance; that is, a small enantiomeric exess in catalyst at Blasticidin S the start of the experiment led to a much larger imbalance in the chiralities of the products at the end of the reaction. Soai et al. (1995) was able to achieve an enantiomeric exess exceeding

85% in the asymmetric autocatalysis of chiral pyrimidyl alkanol. The first work showing that crystallisation experiments could exhibit symmetry breaking was that of Kondepudi and Nelson (1990). Later Kondepudi et al. (1995) showed that the stirring rate was a good bifurcation parameter to analyse the final distribution of chiralities of crystals emerging from a supersaturated solution of sodium chlorate. With no stirring, there were approximately equal numbers of left- and right-handed crystals. Above a critical (threshold) stirring rate, the imbalance in the numbers of each handedness increased, until, at large enough stirring rates, total chiral purity was achieved.

This is due to all crystals in the system being derived from the same ‘mother’ crystal, Glutamate dehydrogenase which is the first crystal to become established in the system; all other crystals grow from fragments removed from it (either directly or indirectly). Before this, Kondepudi and Nelson (1984, 1985) worked on the theory of chiral symmetry-breaking mechanisms with the aim of predicting how parity-violating perturbations could be amplified to give an enantiomeric exess in prebiotic chemistry, and the timescales involved. Their results suggest a timescale of approximately 104 years. More recently, Kondepudi and Asakura (2001) have summarised both the experimental and theoretical aspects of this work.