Swirled to the Left or Right? Nanofibers Align in Stirred Liquid

Is the vortex in a stirred liquid swirling clockwise or counterclockwise? A zinc porphyrin dendrimer—a branched molecule with a central zinc atom—can answer this question. As Japanese researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the optical activity of a solution containing this substance changes rapidly when the direction of stirring is changed.