Reflections on a killer.It should be noted that DDT DDT or 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1,-trichloroethane, chlorinated hydrocarbon compound used as an insecticide. First introduced during the 1940s, it killed insects that spread disease and feed on crops. was a poor example to use as an enantiomeric insecticide insecticide Any of a large group of substances used to kill insects. Such substances are mainly used to control pests that infest cultivated plants and crops or to eliminate disease-carrying insects in specific areas. ("Reflections on Insecticides: Mirror forms of agrochemicals set risk," SN: 1/8/05, p. 20), since this chemical doesn't have an asymmetric carbon An asymmetric carbon is a carbon atom that is attached to four different atoms or four different groups of atoms. The duality that this produces allows for different structural compositions of carbon based molecules (e.g. sugars). and therefore can't exist in "mirror forms." GORDON W. GRIBBLE grib·ble n. Any of several small wood-boring marine isopod crustaceans of the genus Limnoria, especially L. lignorum, which often damage underwater wooden structures. , HANOVER, N.H. DDT is a mixture of three forms of the chemical, one of which has enantiomers--not due to the presence of an asymmetric carbon but the relative position of the chlorine atoms on each of the molecule's two benzene rings. |
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