Enantiomeerillä

Enantiomeerillä is a Finnish term that translates to "enantiomer" in English. Enantiomers are a pair of stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other. This means that if you hold one enantiomer up to a mirror, the reflection will look exactly like the other enantiomer, but you cannot rotate the mirror image to make it perfectly overlap with the original molecule.

Chirality is the property of a molecule that makes it exist as enantiomers. A common way to determine if a molecule is chiral is to look for a chiral center, which is typically a carbon atom bonded to four different groups. When such a carbon atom is present, the molecule can exist in two different spatial arrangements, giving rise to the enantiomeric pair.

Enantiomers have identical physical properties such as melting point, boiling point, and density. However, they differ in their interaction with plane-polarized light. One enantiomer will rotate the plane of polarized light in one direction (dextrorotatory, often denoted as (+) or d), while the other enantiomer will rotate it by the same magnitude in the opposite direction (levorotatory, often denoted as (-) or l). This phenomenon is known as optical activity.

In biological systems, enantiomers can have very different effects. Enzymes and receptors in living organisms are often chiral, and they can interact differently with each enantiomer of a chiral molecule. This is why, for example, one enantiomer of a drug might be therapeutic while the other is inactive or even toxic.