Concept
Enantiomer
Overview
In chemistry, an enantiomer (/ɪˈnænti.əmər, ɛ-, -oʊ-/ ih-NAN-tee-ə-mər), also known as an optical isomer, antipode, or optical antipode, is one of a pair of molecular entities which are mirror images of each other and non-superposable.
Enantiomer molecules are like right and left hands: one cannot be superposed onto the other without first being converted to its mirror image. It is solely a relationship of chirality and the permanent three-dimensional relationships among molecules or other chemical structures: no amount of re-orientation of a molecule as a whole or conformational change converts one chemical into its enantiomer. Chemical structures with chirality rotate plane-polarized light. A mixture of equal amounts of each enantiomer, a racemic mixture or a racemate, does not rotate light.
Stereoisomers include both enantiomers and diastereomers. Diastereomers, like enantiomers, share the same molecular formula and are also non-superposable onto each other; however, they are not mirror images of each other.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Still more strongly will a similar presumption exist, when the object itself, as in the case of organized beings, is no primeval agent, but an effect, which depends on a cause or causes for its very existence. The Kinds, therefore, which are called in chemistry simple substances, or elementary natural agents, are the only ones, any of whose properties can with certainty be considered ultimate; and of these the…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Enantiomer is.
Two sets of four points each are defined as having the same anharmonic ratio, when (1) each set of four lies in one straight line, and (2) corresponding points of different sets lie two by two on four straight lines through a single point, or when both sets have this relation to any third set[123]. And reciprocally: Two sets of four straight lines are defined as having the same anharmonic ratio when (1) each set of…
Bertrand Russell, An essay on the foundations of geometry
States what Enantiomer is.
If this be true of chemical combinations, it is still more true of those far more complex combinations of elements which constitute organized bodies; and in which those extraordinary new uniformities arise, which are called the laws of life. All organized bodies are composed of parts similar to those composing inorganic nature, and which have even themselves existed in an inorganic state; but the phenomena of life…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
States what Enantiomer is.
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of chemistry.