best thing I learned this weekend:

Our hands are enantiomers: two structures with identical composition, but exactly opposite. Non-superimposable mirror images, in Chemistry Major speak. When molecules are enantiomeric, they are identified by the way they make polarized light spin, be it right or left. Left or right, or because I'm sure it was all invented by the Germans a few hundered years ago, rectus and sinister. Rectus as in upright, and sinister for left like the devil.

Thalidomide is a mixture of two enantiomers, one drug that relieves pain and another that is teratogenic. And of course the thalidomide that stops long bone growth in babies is the sinister one. Lefties always get the short end of the stick (I should probably take that pun out but it's about the only justification for this post. That this is the best and pretty much only thing I learned this weekend is a clear sign that it's time to buckle back down. *sigh*)


I'm listening to:
DJ Shadow- Endtroducing...