Stereochemistry

One of my reasons for writing this blog is to communicate with my sister. In particular, we’ve been shooting around the notion of doing an art/science project together, and this is a forum for ideas. To do a project, we need concept, and that requires looking into our lives to find the ways in which we reflect and contrast one another. It occurred to me that our project should be about non-superimposable mirror images, about things that seem the same but are opposites, and about things that are inside out and right side in. Take for example this picture. In this picture, my sister and I appear to have assumed the same pose, but not quite. My left leg is in the same position as her right leg, and her right arm is in the same position as my left arm. We even have injuries on opposite knees. One could say that we have not struck the same pose at all; we have assumed opposite poses. My pose is totally incompatible with her pose, or rather her pose is totally incompatible with mine.

We are related as non-superimposable mirror images. My image is a reflection of hers. This happens everywhere. For example, Luis Pasteur discovered that tartaric acid forms two unique crystals, which are mirror images of one another. One consequence of nature is that only one type of crystal is used. Tartaric acid has a stereocenter, meaning that it has a center of asymmetry. As a result, it can have “Regina stereochemistry” or “Ginevra stereochemistry.” Nature has opted to use only one flavor of stereochemistry. It is kind of like a world in which only right hands exist, and no left hands. This is a result of nature’s tendency towards repetition and self-recognition. (To extend the analogy to its limits, it is easiest for two people to shake hands if both people extend their right hands.)

This whole thing is about seeing each other eye to eye, (that is, left eye to right eye and right eye to left eye). It is about having a more complete view of the world by accepting the things that make us distinct and the things that tie us together. Our project can entail assembling images that reflect this duality and how this duality is true to nature and defies nature.