Year: 2022

OBSESSION. “In particular, the discovery made such a profound impression on Pasteur himself that he came back repeatedly to the problem of the separation of optically inactive substances into optically active components in later years.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

VITAL ACTION. “As a matter of fact, about 10 years after his first discovery he found that a certain type of plant mold could also effect the separation of the racemic acid.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

EFFECTS OF LIFE. “He then reflected on the fact that no ordinary chemical agents or heat could cause the separation and that the two separation methods known to him were both via living agents: in the one case via the mold, in the other case via Pasteur himself.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

VITALISM. “He became convinced that the ability to effect such a separation was "the prerogative of life." This view led to heated discussions, especially after a famous lecture by Japp in 1898 entitled "Stereochemistry and Vitalism" which was published in Nature and was the presidential address in the chemistry section of the British Association.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

RECASTING VITALISM. “(Pasteur) argued for a new version of vitalism in the origin of life. “Only the living organism with its asymmetrical tissues, or the asymmetrical products of the living organism, or the living intelligence with its conception of asymmetry, can produce this result. Only asymmetry can beget asymmetry." https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem if I come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think--“. “In Carroll’s day there was considerable public speculation about what would happen if one fell through a hole that went through the center of the earth.” Footnote 5, page 13, The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Annotated Books). https://lnkd.in/dX8iKez9 View in LinkedIn

The autumn rains has revived tbe north-facing algae on the plane tree bark, newly shed in strands due to the expansion caused by the cambial growth, adding new rings to the tree. View in LinkedIn

HANDEDNESS. “We know today, of course, that the two crystalline forms of tartaric acid are manifestations of their different atomic arrangements. The two elementary molec- ular forms are mirror images of each other.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

DIFFERENTIAL LIGHT PATHS. “We also know that most complicated organic molecules are not equivalent to their mirror images. Prevalence of one mirror image form over the other, as, e.g., exhibited in the structure of the DNA molecule is at the root of the ability for organic material to create optical activity.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

SYMMETRY. “In physics the concept of symmetry has been naturally incorporated since the beginning of the science. With the discussion of crystalline structure, symmetry considerations gained new prominence.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn