''The Left Hand of the Electron'' is a collection of seventeen nonfiction science essays by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov, first published by

Doubleday & Company Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...

in 1972. It was the ninth of a series of books collecting essays from ''

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

''. The title comes from the topic of the first section which deals with chirality of

electroweak interaction In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very differe ...

s and chirality of

organic compounds In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The s ...

and the possible connection between the two. Other essays in this book concern the effect of electron-spin direction on molecular structure e.g. the "Inverse Sugar" (similar to

Inverted sugar syrup Inverted sugar syrup, also called invert syrup, invert sugar, simple syrup, sugar syrup, sugar water, bar syrup, syrup USP, or sucrose inversion, is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, that is made by hydrolytic sacc ...

) in

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

with philosophical reflections on the minority of left handedness in general.

Chapters

*A — The Problem of Left and Right **1 — Odds and Evens **2 — The Left Hand of the Electron **3 — Seeing Double **4 — The 3-D Molecule **5 — The Asymmetry of Life *B — The Problem of Oceans **6 — The Thalassogens **7 — Hot Water **8 — Cold Water *C — The Problem of Numbers and Lines **9 — Prime Quality **10 — Euclid's Fifth **11 — The Plane Truth *D — The Problem of the Platypus **12 — Holes in the Head *E — The Problem of History **13 — The Eureka Phenomenon **14 — Pompey and Circumstance **15 — Bill and I *F — The Problem of Population **16 — Stop! **17 — ...But How?

External links

Asimovonline.com
* Essay collections by Isaac Asimov 1972 books Scientific essays Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Doubleday (publisher) books {{sci-essay-stub