Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

LPF Donation via Stripe | LPF Donation - Other Methods

Links below open in new window

ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Wow...."super chiral" laser...

Gadget

0
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
358
Points
43
Just wow. The science of this is WAAAY above my pay-grade, but amazing none the less! Before today, I had never heard the term chiral.

So many subjects excite the mind, so little time to study them all!


 
Last edited:





gazer101

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 23, 2020
Messages
700
Points
63
Isn't that just producing spirally-polarized light? What do they mean by "ultra-high angular momentum"?
Sorry for all the questions! Just curious (if anyone could answer that would be great)
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2010
Messages
1,643
Points
113
MMMM....Maybe it means the Photons are screwed !! HAHAHA......Blame this infantile response on Quarantine Stress Syndrome ( QSS)....and just a general degree of obtuse humor !! Whatever !!
CDBeam

Added: But..." How do it know what way to spin " ?????? Perhaps it is a function of the Coriolis Effect ???
 

Attachments

  • Metasurface-Laser.jpg
    Metasurface-Laser.jpg
    42.9 KB · Views: 3
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
9,799
Points
113
Looks like crapola to me as far as turning a screw into a block of wood, the amount of photonic torque would be in the un-freaking-believable range.........that said I would love to be surprised.......is there any real world proof of concept that we can see in action ?

Actually I can see where this could be useful for tiny research manipulations in biology and chemical/material science.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 20, 2013
Messages
17,254
Points
113
Chirality is a term usually used in chemistry. If you have a chiral carbon, it has four distinct substituents. The order they are on the carbon makes it chiral. Most biological molecules are chiral in their nature. For instance, narcotic molecules are levo, or have a left rotation with light, while amphetamines are dextro, or have a right rotation with light.
 

andrew6NB

New member
Joined
May 7, 2020
Messages
5
Points
1
Just wow. The science of this is WAAAY above my pay-grade, but amazing none the less! Before today, I had never heard the term chiral.

So many subjects excite the mind, so little time to study them all!


World’s First Super-Chiral Light Produced by New Metasurface Laser – SciTechDaily

It's cool that someone still makes something new.
 

Teej

0
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
Messages
520
Points
48
Chirality is a term usually used in chemistry. If you have a chiral carbon, it has four distinct substituents. The order they are on the carbon makes it chiral. Most biological molecules are chiral in their nature. For instance, narcotic molecules are levo, or have a left rotation with light, while amphetamines are dextro, or have a right rotation with light.

Its some cool stuff.

I first saw some stuff on this back around 2014 or so... and, its fairly mind blowing.

Chirality is very interesting as well, and there's a ton of info on it... but things like lemons and limes taste different, even though what you taste is the same chemical, but, the chiral versions of that chemical taste differently.

They now have lasers that can hit a nut, and make it turn to tighten itself, etc.

We are not talking about big nuts, but, still, holy crap.

:D
 
Joined
Sep 20, 2013
Messages
17,254
Points
113
Yep, that is correct. Many biologic molecules are different in the way we perceive them only because they are mirror images of the same molecule. Dextromethorphan is the mirror image of levodromoran. The first is an OTC cough suppressant while the latter is a powerful narcotic pain reliever.
 
Joined
Nov 20, 2014
Messages
8
Points
3
Research like this is incredibly important. Although they must spin it (ha, get it?) with a heavy application-focused approach, the researchers are really doing fundamental science which has implications in many fields. To the best of my knowledge, there isn't consensus on why biological molecules are homochiral (such as D-sugars or L-amino acids).

An interesting hypothesis is that chiral gamma rays emitted by some physical process in our galaxy (black holes? idk, ask the physicists) were emitted symmetrically in opposite directions. This may have led to photochemical reactions which produced enantioenriched products that propagate this chiral information. If this is the case, there may be other planets that were struck with gamma rays of the opposite handedness leading to a different handedness of molecules. On a planet like that, life may have evolved with D-amino acids and L-sugars.

Just think.... on the other side of the galaxy might just be bizarro Sonic.
 
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
1,513
Points
83
Most biological molecules are chiral in their nature. For instance, narcotic molecules are levo, or have a left rotation with light, while amphetamines are dextro, or have a right rotation with light.

Taking that a step further in etemology.
Dexter means from the right and comes from chivalry, with swords and shields.
Sinister means from the left, same origin.

So if I said I was sinister, it only means I'm left handed.
 
Joined
Sep 20, 2013
Messages
17,254
Points
113
Yes, perhaps because the majority of people are right handed, long ago it became assumed that sinister people were somehow abnormal and thus evil. I personally blame early religions for this assumption as it was brought into being to explain things people couldn't understand and often just got wrong. We will never have all the answers to all questions and to look for them in magical thinking is problematic.
 




Top