Symmetry, Sensation and Sex - 1992 Christmas Lectures 4/5

Explore the fascinating world of molecular handedness in this 58-minute Christmas Lecture from The Royal Institution, recorded in December 1992. Discover how small, handed (chiral) molecules profoundly impact human sensation, emotion, medicine, and reproduction through engaging experiments and demonstrations. Learn why your nose and taste buds can distinguish between different handed versions of the same molecule, revealing that your sensory mechanisms themselves possess handedness. Examine how emotions like fear trigger adrenalin, a small-handed molecule that enables fight-or-flight responses, and understand why molecular handedness proves crucial in medicine where different handed versions of drugs can produce dramatically different effects. Investigate the direct connection between sex and molecular handedness through hormones like testosterone, which controls male sexual activity and physical characteristics, and can even make silent female canaries sing, alongside oestrone's role in female sexual activity essential for species survival. Delve into the historical context of vitamin C and explore glucose as a remarkably versatile four-handed molecule that serves as our primary energy carrier and building block for giant molecules like cellulose, starch, and glycogen that form the foundation of most natural life as we know it.