Fun chirality

Fun chirality

Ph.D. Ksenia KozlovskayaMoscow State University

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1. Chirality - WTF?2. Chirality in everyday life.3. Chirality in science:

3.1 Math3.2 Astronomy3.3 Chemistry3.4 Biology3.5 Crystallography

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Chirality is the lack of right-left symmetry.

Chiral objects has no mirror planes.

Enantiomers (optical isomers) are chiral objects that are mirror images of one another.

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1. Chirality - WTF?

(с) http://physicsworld.com/

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2. Enantiomers in everyday life.

There are right and left ways to tie

a simple knot.

Our hands, shoes and ears are enantiomers.

Architects like to create buildings-

enantiomers.

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2. Chirality in the everyday life.

That is the enantiomer for this car?

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2. Chirality in the everyday life.

In a sense, left and right-hand drive cars are enantiomers.

Spinning top is a symmetrical object moving on the asymmetrical helix path.

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2. Chirality in everyday life.

Spinning top is a symmetrical object moving on the asymmetrical helix path.

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Fan blades are cut from the helical surface. That happens if you replace them with mirror blades?

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Fan blades are cut from the helical surface. If you replace them with mirror blades, the fan will turn into a vacuum cleaner.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics.

If objects are chiral in a space of n dimensions, they can be combined in a space of n+1 dimensions.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics and literature.

Gottfrieb Plattner got into 4-dimentional world, and after return he discovers that he is now left-handed, and his internal anatomy has apparently inverted left and right.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics. SpiralsIf you've seen something in mathematics, most likely you’ll find it in a real world.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics. 2D SpiralsAre the galaxies chiral?

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics. 3D Spirals© http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/

Right and Left circular polarized waves are enantiomers.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics. 3D Spirals

Like humans, snails can be right-handed and left-handed.



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The Sun is a sphere. It’s symmetrical.

The Sun is rotating sphere, but rotating sphere is still symmetrical

But Sun is rotating sphere with magnetic moment! And it made sun chiral.

Sometimes the Sun's magnetic axis changes direction, and Sun turns into its own enantiomer.

N

S

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics and astronomy

The Earth’s shape called Geoid. Geoid is chiral.

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3.2 Chirality in Astronomy. The Earth



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3.3 Chirality in chemistry

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Methane СH4 Methanol СН3ОН Ethanol С2Н5ОН Amyl C5H11OH

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This is a chiral structure with asymmetric carbon atom.

And this is a meso-tartaric acid, it’s symmetrical again.

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How to define if the molecular structure are right or left-handed?

Right crystal rotate the plane of polarization (of polarized light) in a clockwise.

Left crystal rotate the plane of polarization in a counter-clockwise.

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The majority of biological molecules are chiral.

Мost of the amino acids on Earth are right-handed, but the most of shugars are left-handed.

Perhaps, somewhere in the universe there is life with the left- amino acids and right-handed sugars.

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3.3 Chirality in Biology

© http://www.astrochem.org/

You can sense the chirality, smelling orange and lemon. Their smells are chiral molecules.

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3.3 Chirality in Biology

The smell of mint and smell of caraway are enantiomers too.



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Symmetry of all existing crystals can be described by 230 space groups. Chiral crystals occur in 77 (33%) of them.

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3.4 Chirality in Crystallography

In some cases crystal structure is symmetrical, but magnetic structure in the same crystal is chiral.

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3.4 Chirality in Crystallography

(с) Dr Andrew S. Wills

ConclusionI showed you only a small part of the chiral effects in nature.There are chirality in:- Elementary particles physics;- Cosmology;- Origins of life.

Handedness is a fundamental property of physical objects and physical laws, such as size, weight and electric charge.

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Fun chirality

Science

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