ScienceIQ.com

What is Garlic Mustard?

If someone told you that they were going to look for garlic mustard, you would probably think they were making dinner. Garlic Mustard, or Alliaria petiolata, is actually a plant native to Europe. It belongs to the mustard family and when crushed, gives off the aroma of garlic. Garlic Mustard is a biannual herb with heart shaped leaves and small ...

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WhatisGarlicMustard
Astronomy

Is There Weather In Space?

Space weather occurs in the area between the Earth and the Sun and refers to the disturbances and storms that swirl through space, which could have adverse effects on human activities. These ... Continue reading

SpaceWeather
Biology

What Gives Hair Its Color?

Put a single hair under a microscope, and you'll see granules of black, brown, yellow, or red pigment. What you are seeing are tiny particles of melanin, the same pigment that gives skin its color. ... Continue reading

WhatGivesHairItsColor
Mathematics

How To Calculate The Volume Of A Right Cone

Cones are used every day for a variety of purposes. Perhaps the most useful application of the cone shape is as a funnel. For finding the volume, a cone is best viewed as a stack of circles, each one ... Continue reading

VolumeOfARight Cone
Geology

A Undersea View of Our Earth's Geography

The ocean bottom is divided into three major areas: the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the deep ocean basin. The continental shelf extends underwater from each of the major land masses ... Continue reading

UnderseaEarthsGeography

Your Nose Knows!

YourNoseKnowsWould you like spearmint or caraway flavor? That's a strange choice, but believe it or not, they are the same thing. Well, almost. Spearmint and caraway both contain a molecule called carvone with the empirical formula C10H14O, or rather 10 carbon atoms, 14 hydrogen atoms, and 1 oxygen atom. The thing that makes them taste different is that one is left-handed and the other is right-handed. In order for something to have a left or right-handedness, it must be chiral.

Chiral molecules contain the same atoms arranged as mirror images that are non-superimposable. Examples of chiral objects are your hands. Your left hand is the same as your right hand, but they are not interchangeable. Your right hand cannot be replaced by your left hand just as you cannot put your left glove on your right hand. In fact, if you look at your right hand in the mirror, the image you would see would be a left hand. They are mirror images of each other that are non-superimposable; therefore they are 'chiral'. Superimposable objects are things such as balls, cubes, and baseball bats. They are not chiral. When you look at their reflection in a mirror, it looks just like the actual object.

Chiral things only exhibit differences between right and left-handedness when tested with other chiral things. There is no advantage to picking up a chicken egg with the left hand as opposed to the right, because the egg is not chiral. Similarly, a non-chiral piece of test equipment can't distinguish between caraway or spearmint flavoring. The molecules have the same melting point, molecular weight, density, optical absorption, etc. In order to differentiate them, you need a chiral probe. So how can you tell the difference between them when expensive equipment can't? Your nose is a chiral probe!