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Chirality, or handedness, is a fundamental physical characteristic, which spans the length scales ranging from elementary particles to the chiral asymmetry of spiral galaxies. The way in which chirality in chemistry, or molecular handedness, may have emerged in a primitive terrestrial environment, and how it can be triggered, amplified, and transferred, are deeply challenging problems rooted in both fundamental scientific interests and the technological potentials for science and society. Chirality constitutes a unifying feature of the living world and is a prime driving force for molecular selection and genetic evolution in biology. In this book, we offer a selection of five distinct approaches to this problem by leading experts in the field. The selected topics range from protein chirality and its relevance to protein ageing, protein aggregation and neurodegeneration, entropy production associated with chiral symmetry breaking in closed systems, chiral oscillations in polymerization models involving higher-order oligomers, the mirror symmetry breaking in liquids and its implications for the development of homochirality in abiogenesis, the role of chirality in the chemical sciences, and some philosophical implications of chirality.

biochirality --- post-translational modifications --- protein folding --- protein aggregation --- spontaneous chemical reactions --- neurodegeneration --- non-equilibrium phase transitions --- chiral symmetry breaking --- entropy production --- closed systems --- nonequilibrium --- dissipative structures --- mirror symmetry breaking --- biological chirality --- liquid crystals --- proto-RNA --- networks --- compartmentalization --- chiral liquids --- cubic phases --- prebiotic chemistry --- chirality amplification --- helical self-assembly --- chiral oscillations --- spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking --- origin of homochirality --- absolute asymmetric synthesis --- biological homochirality --- chemical abiotic evolution --- chirality --- origin of life --- dissipative reaction systems

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Modern information communication technology eradicates barriers of geographic distances, making the world globally interdependent, but this spatial globalization has not eliminated cultural fragmentation. The Two Cultures of C.P. Snow (that of science–technology and that of humanities) are drifting apart even faster than before, and they themselves crumble into increasingly specialized domains. Disintegrated knowledge has become subservient to the competition in technological and economic race leading in the direction chosen not by the reason, intellect, and shared value-based judgement, but rather by the whims of autocratic leaders or fashion controlled by marketers for the purposes of political or economic dominance. If we want to restore the authority of our best available knowledge and democratic values in guiding humanity, first we have to reintegrate scattered domains of human knowledge and values and offer an evolving and diverse vision of common reality unified by sound methodology. This collection of articles responds to the call from the journal Philosophies to build a new, networked world of knowledge with domain specialists from different disciplines interacting and connecting with other knowledge-and-values-producing and knowledge-and-values-consuming communities in an inclusive, extended, contemporary natural–philosophic manner. In this process of synthesis, scientific and philosophical investigations enrich each other—with sciences informing philosophies about the best current knowledge of the world, both natural and human-made—while philosophies scrutinize the ontological, epistemological, and methodological foundations of sciences, providing scientists with questions and conceptual analyses. This is all directed at extending and deepening our existing comprehension of the world, including ourselves, both as humans and as societies, and humankind.

pessimistic induction --- n/a --- qualitative ontology --- dissipative structures --- physicalism --- agent-based reasoning --- thermodynamics --- the logic of nature --- reverse mathematics --- theoretical unity --- state-space approach --- common good --- naturalization of logic --- monad --- metaphysics --- reflexive psychology --- knowledge --- neurodynamics --- consciousness --- third-way reasoning --- induction and discovery of laws --- mind-matter relations --- exoplanet --- Second Law of thermodynamics --- unitarity --- philosophical foundations --- in the name of nature --- big crunch --- epistemology --- eco-cognitive model --- active imagination --- aesthetics in science --- science --- second-person description --- subsumptive hierarchy --- 1st-person and 3rd-person perspectives --- discursive space --- space flight --- complexity --- cybernetics --- cosmology --- matter --- realism --- eco-cognitive openness --- hylomorphism --- measurement --- fallacies --- induction --- vacuum --- physics --- mental representation --- embodiment --- problem of induction --- contradiction --- internalism --- Jungian psychology --- synthesis --- exceptional experiences --- mind --- relational biology --- symmetry breaking --- emergence --- phenomenological psychology --- Aristotle’s four causes --- humanistic management --- real computing --- A.N. Whitehead --- final cause --- naturalism --- induction and concept formation --- temporality --- dispositions --- dark energy --- heterogeneity --- Naturphilosophie --- computation --- causality --- memory evolutive system --- natural philosophy --- quantum computing --- philosophy of information --- self --- information --- analytical psychology --- logic --- indeterminacy --- scientific method --- dialectics --- computability --- language --- ethics --- perception --- philosophy of nature --- agonism --- errors of reasoning --- everyday lifeworld --- emptiness --- awareness --- unity of knowledge --- digitization --- fitness --- depth psychology --- info-computational model --- creativity --- ontology --- philosophy as a way of life --- development --- void --- big freeze --- signal transduction --- abduction --- retrocausality --- dual-aspect monism --- quantum information --- theoretical biology --- acategoriality --- epistemic norms --- evolutionary psychology --- apophasis --- differentiation --- memory --- centripetality --- mathematics --- Leibniz --- Ivor Leclerc --- spatial representation --- subjective experience --- intentionality --- evidence and justification --- internal quantum state --- scientific progress --- holographic encoding --- information-theory --- qualia --- anticipation --- naturalization --- F.W.J. Schelling --- L. Smolin --- R.M. Unger --- Aristotle --- dual aspects --- process --- theory of everything --- philosophy of science --- cognition --- compositional hierarchy --- autocatalysis --- discourse --- emergentist reductionism --- form --- regulation --- contingency --- endogenous selection --- category theory --- Science --- Philosophy of nature. --- Philosophy. --- Nature --- Nature, Philosophy of --- Natural theology --- Normal science --- Philosophy of science --- Philosophy --- Aristotle's four causes