17 DECEMBER 2024
If Life Went Widdershins
Liam Shaw
In 1848, Louis Pasteur looked at tiny grains of a salt under a magnifying glass and was able to distinguish two crystal forms. They looked almost identical – but not quite. The two crystals had a symmetry of reflection: they were ‘in relation to each other what an image is, in a mirror, in relation to the real thing’.
