By Rick Adams
13, Sep 2024
A completely new structure of light has just been developed and it is called the chiral vortex and an international team of scientists who have produced it says that the device may be very important for the development of new drugs as well as for accurate diagnosis of diseases.
As the name tells you, the new light beam takes a standard light vortex, where light spirals as it travels, and adds chirality—a configuration that property molecules and ions can possess that makes them either mirror left-handed or right-handed just like our hands.
What this means is that if one makes the light chiral at every point, one is able to measure chirality in molecules with high sensitivity.
That handedness of a molecule can radically alter the way that the molecule works, and this can make or break when it comes to the usefulness of the molecule to the body.
Left and right molecules—the quantum asymmetry can also be used as a biomarker for cancer, kidney, and brain diseases, according to Smirnova, a physicist of the Max Born Institute in Germany.
Apart from identifying diseases, chirality is also a component of drug science. Substances that are chemically different due to the position of atoms may have side reactions, and that distorts science and brings about disastrous effects on health.
To avoid such mistakes, the new technology is developed. When the chiral vortex meets chiral molecules, then the molecules produce photons (light).
Again, by observing the pattern of these photons, one can get the right actual average count of left and right-handed molecules.