4 ms·
... but we can determine left and right via the chirality in chemistry? sugar water in a tube has a 'right-handed' chirality (where it twists polarized light to
by altruios 2y ago
... but we can determine left and right via the chirality in chemistry? sugar water in a tube has a 'right-handed' chirality (where it twists polarized light to the right)...
"left is the handedness of the rotation of the neutrino"
Steve Mold and 3b1b have videos on the subject.
- perihelions 2y agoThe inverse enantiomers of sugar function exactly the same way, with the correspondingly inverted enzymes. The chirality of sugars isn't a universe-wide property inherited from fundamental physics, but just a path-dependent quirk of the evolutionary history of biochemistry on Earth. "Universal" for Earth-life only. (The strength of the weak force is very certainly far too... weak... for it to have plausibly influenced this selection process. It was 100% chance).
- altruios 2y agoFair point about biological selection playing a part. neutrinos (the only ones we can detect), however, are left handed. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/240502/why-only-left-handed-neutrinos-have-been-observed-yet#:~:text=Thus%2C%20the%20right%20handed%20neutrino,of%20the%20standard%20model%20forces https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/240502/why-only-.... We simply point to the neutrino. left v right solved?