Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In ...

Researchers have discovered that mechanical strain also induces chirality in non-chiral crystals, opening a new direction to ...

Chemists have demonstrated that neutral chalcogen-bond donors can induce asymmetry in chemical reactions, addressing a ...

"Pretty much everyone agrees that creating so-called 'mirror-life' is a very, very bad idea." Those are the words of Prof ...

Raman optical activity, long thought to require chiral molecules or magnetic order, has been demonstrated in an achiral, nonmagnetic crystal by researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo. The ...

Microbes based on mirror images of molecules in the natural world would have a hard time surviving outside the laboratory, according to a modelling study. To do so, they would need a ready supply of ...

Attaching amino acids to a hydrophobic organic molecule allows them to self-assemble into rare, knotted structures with defined handedness, sidestepping the need for external templates or chiral ...

A quartz crystal subjected to a temperature gradient, leading to the generation of orbital angular momentum in the surrounding electron environment. Image: NC State University Electrons’ orbital ...

Chemists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found a new use for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), not just as genetic material, but as a tool for more efficient production of medicinal ...

Scientists are considering what limits to potentially place on mirror-image cell research. Kateryna Kon / Science Photo Library via Getty Images Scientists have been voicing concerns over the creation ...