The second form rearranges into the third form upon exposure to a vapor of a pure enantiomer of the molecules. The polymorphs differ in the torsion angles of three phenyl subscituents. A symmetric guest will often be disordered in an asymmetric host site while an asymmetric guest will be ordered in the same environment. He described how an asymmetric host induces asymmetry in a symmetric guest. Attempts to measure this ratio have been undertaken on the belief that this will help establish how much time has elapsed since the big bang.
Prion is a normal protein found in the brain.
Accumulation of an aggregated form of the protein is the underlying cause of mad cow disease. The aggregated prion protein seems to be chemically identical to normal prion. The only apparent difference is conformational. James described intriguing examples of the influence of sequences upon the transformation of prion from its benign to its deadly form. The NMR structures reveal, potential interactions on a loop structure that brings residues 129 and 178 close to one another.