the.com/enantiomer
Same molecule, mirror image, impossible to superimpose — like your left and right hand.
means One of a pair of molecules that are mirror images of each other, identical in every bond and atom count but non-superimposable — a chemical left and right hand.
from Built from Greek roots: 'enantios' meaning 'opposite' (itself from 'en-' + 'antios,' 'set against'), plus '-mer' from 'meros,' meaning 'part' or 'share,' the same suffix found in 'polymer' and 'isomer.' Chemists reached for this Greek compound in the era when stereochemistry was being formalized, needing a precise word for molecules that are opposite in spatial arrangement while sharing identical parts — the term names the mirrored geometry directly rather than describing it metaphorically.
- smell test
- one enantiomer smells of spearmint, its twin of caraway
- thalidomide lesson
- one isomer healed, its mirror caused birth defects
- detection method
- they rotate polarized light in opposite directions
- life's bias
- nature almost exclusively builds proteins from left-handed amino acids