Of interest on the topic of determining chirality: How would you teach left from right to an alien civilization:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2936682
Odd that it this paradox isn’t mentioned in the RSC article but it is probably assumed that everyone with a degree in Chemistry has come across the puzzle before. How do you explain to an alien, or some person with whom you share no cultural background, what “left” and “right” are solely by talking to them over the phone? You’d better get it right — not only would a handshake be awkward if you got it wrong, they might also turn out to be made of antimatter!
Would the use for this be when you need exact enantiomer composition, versus a polarimeter which just tells you "racemic or not"?
2019. Somebody probably has a flow-matching/diffusion/foundation model chirality determination by now.
Trained on data provided by this new technique