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Chirality is Just Turtles All the Way Down

Season 10 Episode 8 | 12m 02s

L-DOPA is the best drug we have for Parkinson’s disease. If you take L-DOPA and reflect it in a mirror, you get a different molecule: D-DOPA, which does absolutely nothing for Parkinson’s and causes potentially deadly side effects. Making just L-DOPA without D-DOPA is surprisingly hard – so hard that the person who finally figured out how to do it won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Aired: 06/11/24
Extras
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Alex made some kidney stones at home and tested prevention methods to keep them at bay.
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George tests a revolutionary new way to stick stuff together.
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Could a seemingly magical 300-year-old technology save us from climate change?
Fluoride is everywhere in the discourse but here’s what the research actually says.
How does a lifesaving drug vanish into thin air?
is there really a difference in the Coca-Cola from Mexico?
Alex made some kidney stones at home and tested prevention methods to keep them at bay.
An email from a subscriber made us question everything we thought we knew about trees.
The 15 ways that color happens. It's all about the electrons. Well, almost.
This element powers glow in the dark exit signs, keychains, and costs $30,000 per gram.
Scientific fraud rocked the Alzheimer’s research community. Did it help point to a cure?
Alex Dainis explores whether or not your milk needs to be pasteurized. Yes, it really does.