eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) (10/20/84)
< hmmmm, wouldn't a Kurk make a delicious meal, slurp slurp > "Beam me up Scotty, fast!!!", as a 5-legged gnerk approaches. "Aye captain, but therrre's sompin rrong with the transporrterr for sure". Indeed, the polarity of the horizontal scanner is reversed, and the captain appears on the ship reflected. (ooops) He feels fine, controlling his reflected body with a reflected brain, and he wonders why the ship is backwards. The question is: can he live this way?? Some people develop reflected (heart on the wrong side and everything), but that is different. All Kurk's molecules are reversed too. His proteans, enzymes, sugars, etc have the opposite parity. If he tries to eat something, all the amino acids will be wrong. (except glycine of course) But he can live for a while can't he?? Oxygen is symmetric, so he could breath. He only has to live an hour, Bones can cure anything in that amount of time. The underlying question is: Are there any chemical reactions which proceed differently (if at all) when all of the reactants are reflected? Perhaps one could prove geometric invariance using the symmetry of the fundamental forces of our universe. Any thoughts on this irrelevant and unimportant topic?? -- Karl Dahlke ihnp4!ihnet!eklhad
chip@t4test.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) (10/22/84)
--- REFERENCED ARTICLE --------------------------------------------- >From: eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) >Date: 19 Oct 84 23:45:35 GMT > >Any thoughts on this irrelevant and unimportant topic?? -------------------------------------------------------------------- "It was not until several years after the publication of _Through the Looking-Glass_ that stereochemistry found positive evidence that orgainc substances had an asymetric arrangement of atoms. Isomers are substances that have molecules composed of exactly the same atoms, but with these atoms linked together in structures that are topologically quite different..... "Of course a true mirror reflection of milk would also reverse the structure of the elementary particles themselves. In 1957 two Chinese-American physicists, Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, received the Nobel prize for theoretical work that led to the "gay and wonderful discovery" (in Robert Oppenheimer's happy phrase) that some elementary particles are assymetric. It now appears likely that particles and their antiparticles (that is, identical particles with opposite charges) are, like stereoisomers, nothing more than mirror-image forms of the same structure. If this is true, then looking-glass milk would be composed of "anti-matter," which would not even be drinkable by Alice; both milk and Alice would explode as soon as they came into contact. Of course, an anti-Alice, on the other side of the looking-glass would find anti-milk as tasty and nourishing as usual." [references follow] ---The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carrol, notes by Martin Gardner Bramhall House, 1960 -- Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara { idi|intelca|icalqa|kremvax|qubix|ucscc } ! t4test ! { chip|news }
lwall@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Larry Wall) (10/22/84)
The name's Kirk, not Kurk. Or is it Krik now?
Anyway, he could live considerably longer than an hour if he just warps
to the friendly neighborhood supermarket and snarfs all the L-sugar from
the dietetic shelf. Talk about a carbohydrate diet...
Larry Wall
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!lwallivy@ihuxt.UUCP (JJ Ivy) (10/23/84)
Physicists have been known to ask whether we live in a matter-universe, moving forward in time, or in an anti-matter-universe, moving backward through time. Arguments bordering on metaphysics would quickly follow, in which it is pointed out that all the basic reactions work in both directions, everything is symmetrical (it is chosen to ignore the sensation of time, and also relentless Entropy, for the sake of a more entertaining argument). Conclusions follow concerning our universe oscillating back and forth through time, between TWO big bangs, and about black holes, white holes, and worm holes. Only a few (<10) years ago, an assymmetric sub-atomic reaction was discovered. For now, worm-holes no longer exist, time does indeed move relentlessly forward, and it is no surprise that the universe is built of matter (versus anti-matter, or half-and-half). The reaction concerns a certain particle that always has the same spin, instead of half a chance of having the reverse spin. Other particles in the reaction carry the opposing spin for parity. And now, this article gets totally off-the-wall: So this week's transporter malfunction produces a mirror-image Capt. Kirk. Reflecting all of the molecules in an organism would have no short-term disaster, as you pointed out (besides nearly every food being undigestable, things would also *taste* different, better or worse. And smells would likewise differ. He would smell different to the crew and vice-versa). But what about the sub-atomic structure of the nuclei of those reversed molecules? If those structures were reversed, I don't know if anyone could guess the consequences (last I heard, no one even knew what the structures were). So, use your imagination. Maybe the poor fellow will start moving backward in time, remembering the future. Maybe his mear presense would disturb the engines (what doesn't?) and here come the Klingons... (please step outside a moment, sir). Pretend that the sub-atomic assymmentry is the *cause* of molecular assymmetry, and with one or the other reversed, the victim moves toward Spontaneous Human Combustion.... D Iverson
jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) (10/31/84)
There is a Star Trek story about the transporter reversing someone. The
title is "Spock Must Die".
Jerry Aguirre
{hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerry