Chirality: From Weak Bosons to the alpha-Helix - Brossura

Brossura

ISBN 10: 3642765718 ISBN 13: 9783642765711

Casa editrice: Springer-Verlag, 1991

Riassunto

The phenomenon of chirality occurs in many disciplines of natural sciences, such as elementary particle physics, chemistry of molecules, biopolymers and crystals, pharmacology, biology (snails, winding plants), and medicine (handedness). This book gives for the first time an interdisciplinary comprehensive treatment of chirality. Ten well-known scientists describe the present state of the art in different fields in introductory review articles without going into detail.

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Les hypotheses, n'en deplaise a mon contradicteur, sont l'ame des progres de la science. Louis Pasteur The concept of chirality, established 100 years ago, plays an im­ portant role in almost all domains and dimensions of our recent scientific view of life. Chiral properties can be found in fundamen­ tal nuclear particles, in molecules, and in the macroscopic world of living nature (plants and animals) and inanimate nature (crystals). In particular, chirality, or more precisely chiral excess, is evident in human beings. For example, the expected symmetry of the hands turns out to be functionally non-existent. Consequently chirality occurs in the technical sphere, where screws are the best-known examples, since most of them are made for right-handed people. Chirality is not confined to static objects but influences processes such as chemical reactions. The occurrence of chiral objects on different dimensional scales has been treated in the past in mutually independent frameworks. There were, however, two remarkable events from which the conclu­ sion can be drawn that the appearance of chirality in various fields has a common cause. On the one hand, physicists found evidence that the well-known biomolecular homochirality can be traced back to the chirality of weak bosons. At the same time, on the other hand, the so-called thalidomide tragedy occurred when thalido­ mide molecules of a certain chirality, taken by pregnant women, caused deformed children.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Springer-Verlag
• Data di pubblicazione: 1991
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 3642765718
• ISBN 13: 9783642765711
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 246
• Redattore: Janoschek Rudolf
• Contatto del produttore: ProductSafety@springernature.com; ProductSafety@springernature.com; ; Europaplatz 3; Heidelberg; 69115; Germania