The molecule and its double
By: Jean Jacques ; [translated by Lee Scanlon in collaboration with the Language Service, Inc.].
Edition: English language ed.
Series: The McGraw-Hill horizons of science series
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 1993
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9780070323995
Subjects: Stereochemistry; Chirality
Work titles: Molécule et son double
Description: Science is haunted by an enigma: Amino acids, which make up living matter, are able to exist, chemically speaking, in two forms, a left and a right, like our two hands, yet strangely enough they are all found to belong to the same "hand." Pasteur said that these natural molecules were "dissymmetrical." Another discovery has just reopened the question. The Universe itself, we find, is characterized by a decisive break in symmetry, one that has given matter the upper hand over antimatter.

Thus, the scenarios of the astrophysicists fall in line with the findings of the molecular biologists - a line running from the cosmos to life. The practical implications of the "direction" of life are enormous.

In the laboratory we can synthesize compounds in both the "left-handed" and "right-handed" forms, but the effectiveness of an insecticide or a drug, for example, as well as their side effects, depend on the "doubling" of the molecule of which they are composed: "right" and "left" are not the same thing.
Notes: Translation of: La Molécule et son double.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-128).

Translation of: La Molécule et son double.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Dominique Lecourt; title: I. Pasteur discovers "dissymmetry" Rotatory power. Tartaric acid and the mysterious racemic acid. Mitscherlich's fruitful error. Enter Pasteur. A second stroke of luck and genius. The discovery of racemization. A mistake of Pasteur's; title: II. Asymmetric carbon and molecular chirality. Atoms and molecules in about 1850. Le Bel, van't Hoff and asymmetric carbon. Those who did not believe in atoms. Extension of the "Pasteur principle" Back to the crystal and the different varieties of racemic compounds. How can we describe and know absolute configurations? Propagating chirality; title: III. Chirality and living things. Pasteur and molds. Biological receptors and chirality. Racemic drugs and chiral drugs. Life has a "direction"