this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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top 16 comments
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[–] JoShmoe@ani.social 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I’m not smart enough to know this.

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week 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 -)

[–] FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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

[–] protist@mander.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 0 points 1 week ago

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

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 0 points 1 week ago

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?

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Chirality, Motherfucker! Do you have it?

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago

Say racemic. Say racemic again motherfucker!

[–] lemmy12369@midwest.social 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago

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

[–] Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] 211@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago

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