this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
408 points (97.0% liked)

Science Memes

15417 readers
1298 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
fossilesque
408
Enantiomers (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I’m not smart enough to know this.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago

It's the title of the post: Enantiomer an identical chemical structure but mirrored. Think of how your hands are left and right. They're identical in their structure, but are mirrored. Molecules can have the same thing and were denoted by L and D (but now use + and -)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Some molecules have a rotation that is centered on a chiral carbon atom and is named by the way the other atoms of the molecule rotate. There are some rules to it, but L is levorotatory and means it rotates to the left or counter-clockwise. D is dextrorotatory and spins to the right, or clockwise.

Edit: spelling errors lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

These terms can describe any molecule, btw, doesn't have to contain carbon

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Not any molecule, it’s gotta be able to have stereoisomers in the first place. There’s no R or S water for example. D/L notation is for biology.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Well yes, it does have to have chirality, I just meant it doesn't have to contain any specific elements.

I'm definitely no expert, but isn't the D/L notation used in all of chemistry? Sometimes it's written Δ/Λ, but that's the same thing. Doesn't it just describe a molecule's geometry in a different way from R/S?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

D/L refers to the entire molecule and how it polarizes light whereas R/S looks at every chiral center and has a priority system to assign. I’ve only really seen D/L in biochemistry, regular chemistry is using R/S notation. D/L is the older less precise notation. R/S is much more specific and isn’t related to polarization of light.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Fair! I've only taken organic chemistry so far, so that's what I remembered

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Chirality, Motherfucker! Do you have it?

[–] redsand 10 points 2 weeks ago

Say racemic. Say racemic again motherfucker!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Y not Samuel R Jackson¿

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Because the prefixes for optical rotation are dextro and levo :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

because the meme was made by a chemist and not a physicist

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ooh, do Harry S. Truman vs Harry R. Truman next!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

TIL chemists clearly got confused by D(ex)/S(in) and R(ight)/L(eft).