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“Left and Right: The Mechanics of Chirality

from Darwin’s Perversion to Feynman’s Obsession”

Date:

Download-files:

Time:

Thursday, 01. Feb 2018

Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support

- Video.mp4 (ca.362 Mb)

15:15 – 16:15

Alain Goriely

(University of Oxford)

Abstract :

Most structures in nature such as proteins, climbing vines, and seashells exhibit a chirality,

some are left-handed, some are right-handed, some are both.

The ultimate origin of this handedness is one of Nature's great mystery.

However, mechanics play a fundamental role in both assigning handedness and carrying

this information from microscopic to macroscopic scales.

In this talk, I will discuss the general problem of handedness, trace its evolution in the

history of science, and use examples from biology and biophysics to illustrate the

interplay between mechanics and handedness with some surprising twists.