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Old ice tongs just outside the old main gates of Girona, Spain. 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

SMALL GENETIC TOOLKIT. “Cell signalling pathways are constructed from a limited number of component types that rely upon a small number of discrete mechanisms of action. The discovery of this universal genetic toolkit for an animal’s development has had important impacts.” For example, GPCRs in the sensory system. https://lnkd.in/dZseHNGF 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

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on a charming paper by a Nobel Laureate about symmetry, full of interesting anecdotes outside of science including MC Escher, in the respected tradition of the scholar scientist polymath; several hundred years ago this was less difficult because the sheer amount of material was much less. https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

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

WEAK INTERACTION FOCUS. “It turned out that the symmetries C, P, and T are obeyed in dominant interactions (i.e, strong and electromagnetic interactions) between elementary particles, while imperfections in these symmetries are observed in "weak interactions”.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

IMPERFECT OBEDIENCE. “It seems that God in creating the physical world also chose to have certain symmetries largely but not perfectly obeyed the story of the unfolding of these imperfections in the symmetries and has provided much excitement in elementary particle physics in the last 10 years.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

NO MECHANISTIC UNDERSTANDING. “While the existence of such a symmetry is dramatically demonstrated simply by a glance at the masses of the elementary particles (Figure 7), there is today only a descriptive understanding of the origin of this symmetry.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn

BROAD APPLICABILITY. “The enormous effectiveness of symmetry considerations in quantum mechanics naturally led to a proliferation of papers concerning the subject, especially in recent years.” https://lnkd.in/dqXS2nnQ View in LinkedIn