{"id":28645,"date":"2020-05-08T08:11:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T13:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=28645"},"modified":"2020-05-08T08:11:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T13:11:58","slug":"word-of-the-day-559","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/05\/08\/word-of-the-day-559\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Of The Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Chiral<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In\u00a0<a title=\"Chemistry\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chemistry\">chemistry<\/a>, a molecule or ion is called\u00a0<b>chiral<\/b>\u00a0(<span class=\"rt-commentedText nowrap\"><span class=\"IPA nopopups noexcerpt\"><a title=\"Help:IPA\/English\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Help:IPA\/English\">\/<span title=\"'k' in 'kind'\">k<\/span><span title=\"\/a\u026a\/: 'i' in 'tide'\">a\u026a<\/span><span title=\"\/\u02c8\/: primary stress follows\">\u02c8<\/span><span title=\"'r' in 'rye'\">r<\/span><span title=\"\/\u00e6\/: 'a' in 'bad'\">\u00e6<\/span><span title=\"'l' in 'lie'\">l<\/span>\/<\/a><\/span><\/span>) if it cannot be superposed on its\u00a0<a title=\"Mirror image\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mirror_image\">mirror image<\/a>\u00a0by any combination of\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Rotation (geometry)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rotation_(geometry)\">rotations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Translation (geometry)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Translation_(geometry)\">translations<\/a>. This geometric property is called\u00a0<b>chirality<\/b>.\u00a0The terms are derived from\u00a0<a title=\"Ancient Greek\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ancient_Greek\">Ancient Greek<\/a>\u00a0\u03c7\u03b5\u03af\u03c1 (<i>cheir<\/i>), meaning &#8220;hand&#8221;; which is the canonical example of an object with this property.\u00a0<em>[<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chirality_(chemistry)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Wikipedia<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Noted in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg24632780-700-lifes-other-mystery-why-biologys-building-blocks-are-so-lop-sided\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Life&#8217;s other mystery: Why biology&#8217;s building blocks are so lop-sided<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; Hayley Bennett, <em><strong>NewScientist<\/strong><\/em> (18 April 2020, paywall):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Indeed, most complex molecules have at least two possible \u201cmirror\u201d versions, known as left and right-handed \u201cenantiomers\u201d. This matters because the alternatives can have remarkably different properties or effects. The two opposite-handed versions of the chemical known as carvone, for instance, give the spearmint and caraway plants their distinctive aromas. Similarly, the enantiomers of limonene, both formed naturally, smell differently: one of lemon, the other of orange.<\/p>\n<p>The phenomenon has implications in drug development too. In the pharmaceutical industry, enantiomers often have to be painstakingly separated because one version of a drug doesn\u2019t work or isn\u2019t safe. Thalidomide, for example, was a right-handed molecule that caused birth deformities in thousands of babies, whereas its left-handed form safely treats pregnancy sickness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chiral: In\u00a0chemistry, a molecule or ion is called\u00a0chiral\u00a0(\/ka\u026a\u02c8r\u00e6l\/) if it cannot be superposed on its\u00a0mirror image\u00a0by any combination of\u00a0rotations\u00a0and\u00a0translations. This geometric property is called\u00a0chirality.\u00a0The terms are derived from\u00a0Ancient Greek\u00a0\u03c7\u03b5\u03af\u03c1 (cheir), meaning &#8220;hand&#8221;; which is the canonical example of an object with this property.\u00a0[Wikipedia] Noted in &#8220;Life&#8217;s other mystery: Why biology&#8217;s \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/05\/08\/word-of-the-day-559\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28646,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28645\/revisions\/28646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}