Where does the term chiral originate ?
The term chirality was first introduced by Lord Kelvin to describe any system or structure that possesses sufficiently low symmetry such that it is distinct from its mirror image.
"I call a geometrical figure in a group of points chiral and say that it has chirality if its image in a plane mirror, ideally realised, cannot be brought to coincide with itself". Our own hands are perhaps the best example of chirality in that they are perfect mirror images and cannot be superimposed on each other.
Origins
Louis Pasteur first identified chiral molecules and realised that they rotate plane polarised light. He had observed that crystals on wine bottles rotated plane polarised light in opposite directions. He was able to separate the crystals that rotated polarised light clockwise from those that rotated polarised light anti-clockwise. He had separated the two forms of tartaric acid this way.
