Chirality,or absence of mirrorsymmetry, is a fascinating attribute of inanimate and living objects,which inspires artists and fascinates scientists in various disciplines,from physics to mathematics, biology to chemistry and crystallography.Producing and controlling the sense of handedness in systems formedby mirror-symmetric elements or containing an equal amount of left-and right-twisted elements is usually a nontrivial task. In this issueof ACS Central Science, Geonhyeong Park et al.1 demonstrate that a slab of a lyotropic chromonicliquid crystal (LCLC), formed by achiral molecules dispersed in water,can produce a periodic array of domains with left- and right-handedtwists of the orientation of molecular aggregates. The twist developsover macroscopic regions of tens of microns in size and is causedby a balance of two facets of the orientational order pertinent toliquid crystals: the elastic response to deformations of orientationand anisotropy of surface interactions at confining boundaries.
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