Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

IR Spectroscopy: Molecular Vibration Overview01:24

IR Spectroscopy: Molecular Vibration Overview

6.2K
When Infrared (IR) radiation passes through a covalently bonded molecule, the bonds transition from lower to higher vibrational levels. The fundamental vibrational motions that result in infrared absorption can be classified as stretching or bending vibrations.
Stretching vibrations are vibrational motions that occur along the bond line, changing the bond length or distance between two bonded atoms. They are further distinguished as symmetric or asymmetric. In symmetric stretching, the...
6.2K
Chirality02:25

Chirality

32.4K
Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
32.4K
Olfaction01:25

Olfaction

49.9K
The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...
49.9K
Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

18.0K
Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.
18.0K
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons00:58

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

3.8K
Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
3.8K
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

7.4K
Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
7.4K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Spectroscopic and computational studies on DNA/BSA binding and cytotoxicity of a new Pd(II)-phen-salicylate complex.

Journal of biomolecular structure & dynamics·2025
Same author

Quantum effects in ion transport: A thermodynamic resource theory approach.

Bio Systems·2025
Same author

Mimicking classical noise in ion channels by quantum decoherence.

Scientific reports·2024
Same author

In Vitro Evaluation of Drug-Drug Interaction Potential of Epetraborole, a Novel Bacterial Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase Inhibitor.

Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland)·2024
Same author

Quantum non-Markovianity, quantum coherence and extractable work in a general quantum process.

Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP·2024
Same author

Author Correction: Environment assisted quantum model for studying RNA-DNA-error correlation created due to the base tautomery.

Scientific reports·2023

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

11.1K

Dissipative vibrational model for chiral recognition in olfaction.

Arash Tirandaz1, Farhad Taher Ghahramani1, Afshin Shafiee1,2

  • 1Foundations of Physics Group, School of Physics, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), P. O. Box 19395-5531, Tehran, Iran.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|October 15, 2015
PubMed
Summary

Humans can distinguish between left- and right-handed odor molecules. This difference arises from varying electron transport rates in olfactory receptors, a key finding for understanding smell.

More Related Videos

Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
09:43

Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy

Published on: August 13, 2019

9.9K
Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase
09:53

Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase

Published on: April 23, 2019

7.6K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
08:51

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

Published on: August 18, 2017

11.1K
Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
09:43

Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy

Published on: August 13, 2019

9.9K
Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase
09:53

Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase

Published on: April 23, 2019

7.6K

Area of Science:

  • Quantum Chemistry
  • Olfactory Neuroscience
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • The sense of smell relies on olfactory receptors interacting with odorant molecules.
  • Chiral odorants exist as left- and right-handed enantiomers, which can elicit different smell perceptions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanism of olfactory discrimination between chiral odorant enantiomers.
  • To model odorant-mediated electron transport in olfactory receptors.

Main Methods:

  • Described chiral odorants using an asymmetric double-well potential.
  • Modeled the biological environment as a bath of harmonic oscillators.
  • Adapted the spin-boson model with a polaron transformation to derive a Born-Markov master equation.

Main Results:

  • Calculated elastic and inelastic electron tunneling rates.
  • Demonstrated that inelastic tunneling rates differ for left- and right-handed enantiomers.
  • Identified the ratio of tunneling to localization frequency as crucial for discrimination.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides a quantum mechanical model for olfactory discrimination of chiral odorants.
  • Electron transport asymmetry in olfactory receptors underlies enantiomeric smell perception.
  • The findings offer insights into the fundamental mechanisms of olfaction.