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A task for you NS.
You contact an alien civiliation over, say, radio. You want to describe to these aliens, who have never seen or observed a human being, the concept of left versus right, so that when the two of you actually meet, you'll know which hand to stick out to greet in an appendage-shake.
So, what can you ask them to make sure our "Right" is their "Right"? Is it possible?
tell them to fuck off, we doont want them here anyway.
Ooooo, good one for sure. But your answer kinda relies on the specifics I postulated rather than the actual question.
The real question behind the scenario is about right and left. We chose these words to distinguish these sides. And everything has a "left" or "right" to it based on perspective. But is there any way to distinguish one from another just on observation alone? Forget the alien analogy, Imagine instead you're speaking through an intercom to a person who recently experienced amnesia, is in a dark room and cannot observe anything. Explain left and right. Could you get the person to always correctly identify "right" with our "right"?
Clockwise and counterclockwise are relative terms however. If we exist say in one dimension, and contact aliens in another, where each civilization cannot observe anything the other can, what could oe say to truly distinguish left and right, or clockwise and counterclockwise?
And our solar system may orbit in one direction, but theres only a 50% chance thiers would rotate the same...
Many biologically active molecules are chiral, including the naturally occurring amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), and sugars. In biological systems, most of these compounds are of the same chirality: most amino acids are L and sugars are D. Typical naturally occurring proteins, made of L amino acids, are known as left-handed proteins, whereas D amino acids produce right-handed proteins.
The origin of this homochirality in biology is the subject of much debate.[10] Most scientists believe that Earth life's "choice" of chirality was purely random, and that if carbon-based life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, their chemistry could theoretically have opposite chirality. However, there is some suggestion that early amino acids could have formed in comet dust. In this case, circularly polarised radiation (which makes up 17% of stellar radiation) could have caused the selective destruction of one chirality of amino acids, leading to a selection bias which ultimately resulted in all life on Earth being homochiral.[11]
Enzymes, which are chiral, often distinguish between the two enantiomers of a chiral substrate. Imagine an enzyme as having a glove-like cavity that binds a substrate. If this glove is right-handed, then one enantiomer will fit inside and be bound, whereas the other enantiomer will have a poor fit and is unlikely to bind.
D-form amino acids tend to taste sweet, whereas L-forms are usually tasteless. Spearmint leaves and caraway seeds, respectively, contain L-carvone and D-carvone - enantiomers of carvone. These smell different to most people because our olfactory receptors also contain chiral molecules that behave differently in the presence of different enantiomers.
Chirality is important in context of ordered phases as well, for example the addition of a small amount of an optically active molecule to a nematic phase (a phase that has long range orientational order of molecules) transforms that phase to a chiral nematic phase (or cholesteric phase). Chirality in context of such phases in polymeric fluids has also been studied in this context.[1"
Chirality seems like the answer, but in different alien biology, we simply dont know how they work, so the chiral molecule that might enzymatically enhance that one procss wouldnt be farmiliar in the least.
And yea, this isn't about the words 'left' and 'right', its about the meaning, the distinguishing. I guess since any alien is likely to have a much different body plan than ours, such a concept of left and right might be specific only to radialy symmetric life forms. A giant starfish like alien with eyes at the tips of all its legs might just view the universe in continuous panoramic-like circle.
And why should such a question matter? The existence of anti-matter, obviously. Say we get word that a alien spaceship is landing on earth tomorrow from an unknown corner of the universe. Since anti-matter and matter annihilate when brought together, it might be good for us to know if 'left' for them is 'left' for us, as they are made out of material that would have the opposite properties as ours. Since there is no difference to the observer between a life madeof matter or antimatter, as all particles are fully reversed, theoretically, if we were somehow alble to confer left from right, and asked them to sick out their right hand for a handshake, they would correctly (to the antimatter beings) stick out their left. (I know I've lost people here, sorry)
On top of this, we have to consider the further possibility that these aliens may be from a parity universe (if they are extradimensional, as we are assuming, for fun). The easiest way to imagine a parity universe is a mirror universe, through the looking glass stuff, where your right would be someones left, though you are both made from ordinary 'matter'. Crazy thing is that even if we were able to describe left andright (Which NS hasnt quite gotten to yet) to a extradimensional civilization, we would be utterly screwed if we happened to contact a parity-antimatter civilization - a alien race that lives in a parity universe and is made out of antimatter. For them, they would correctly stick out their right hand, as the laws of physics would have a double negative effect in this case, and anyone who touched them would have their atoms destroyed.
If they understand physics, RIght hand rule using current and magnetism? or right hand rule for the direction of torque.
