Month: September 2022

CHIRALITY and unusual optical and consequent electrical properties of materials, including liquid crystals, is the subject of this in depth review, which is a linear continuation of the early observations of Pasteur, except with vastly more powerful tools and the benefits of an army of scientists, and of course, time. https://lnkd.in/etPP69n View in LinkedIn

GROWING TENDRILS of twining plants are chiral: "runner bean and bindweed make right-handed helices, whereas hop and honeysuckle produce left-handed helices," showing anisotrophic growth patterns. https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

"ROOTS, hypocotyls, shoots, branches and flower stalks may oscillate either in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction, strictly in a growth-dependent manner." https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

"PETALS of several species are arranged like fan blades that all seem to twist in the same direction, forming either a clockwise or an anticlockwise appearance." https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

"CLOCKWISE-rotating petals are found, for example, in oleander, whereas petals of the greater periwinkle are arranged in an anticlockwise fashion." https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

"PLANT species of the families Guttiferae, Malvaceae and Oxalidaceae, however, generally develop clockwise- and anticlockwise-rotating flowers with equal frequency." https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

"THE HAWAIIN HIBISCUS flower is an example of a racemic species...plant species of Guttiferae, Malvaceae, and Oxalidiceae generally produce flowers with equal numbers of the two mirror image forms." https://lnkd.in/evp9VKA View in LinkedIn

LEAF GEOMETRY. "The patterned arrangement of organs such as leaves around the shoot axis (phyllotaxy) represents another example of handedness in plants. A spiral/helical phyllotactic pattern where leaves are formed 137.5° apart predominates in nature." https://lnkd.in/eNvcnv7 View in LinkedIn

DIGITIZING PLANT GEOMETRY. Plant geometry is sufficiently complex to require sophisticated mathematical treatments merely to describe it, let alone operationalize on a season-by-season basis. https://lnkd.in/ewh8wVu View in LinkedIn

CIRCUMNUTATIONS in plants, the vigorous asymmetric movements of leaves and tendrils, originally described by Charles Darwin, have fascinated biologists. The "internal oscillator" and gravity sensing controlled by genes, appear to be the drivers. https://lnkd.in/eWz-WRu View in LinkedIn