click here for the plus home page
© 1997-2004, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge.
Permission is granted to print and copy this page on paper for non-commercial use. For other uses, including electronic redistribution, please contact us.
Careers with maths
icon

Rupa Patel reflects to Plus on her work as a financial engineer

A favourite from the archive...
icon

When we finally meet the Martians, John Conway believes they are going to want to talk mathematics.

Subscribe to our RSS feed:
AddThis Feed Button subscribe to our RSS feed
 
March 2008
Tags

chirality

Feature icon

Some molecules - thalidomide, for example - come in both left and right handed versions, while others are indistinguishable from their reflections. Plus finds out about the role of mathematical symmetry in chemistry.

Tags: rotation : symmetry : identity : handedness : chirality : symmetry operations : reflection : inversion


Feature icon

Physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies has made an unusual move into the infant discipline of astrobiology. He tells Plus about his interest in the big questions: what is life, how would we recognise aliens - and are they all around us?

Tags: chirality : evolution : quantum information : origins of life : alien life : information : semantic information : natural selection


Feature icon

A new liquid breaks the laws of physics

Tags: refraction : Snell's Law : symmetry : chirality : reflection