Bernhard et al, > > > @ Jens: > > > I think the precise and correct term applicable to the "65" should > be pro-chiral spacegroups. They are not chiral by themselves, but > addition of "something" /allows/ for the creation of a chiral object > (i.e. the crystal). > > For a moment I though we have it…. but then the rest would be > anti-chiral?
I never thought about it that way but actually, yes! You put something chiral into their AU and those little buggers go on and invert it. They are really anti-chiral. So we have the three groups chiral, prochiral and antichiral. I like the suggestion of calling the chiral and prochiral groups the Sohncke groups (beware everybody misspelled that poor guy, he has a ck in his last name). That keeps the history of our field in the expressions we use and might even inspire people to look up who the people were on whose shoulders we stand. Jens PS: I had to laugh when I looked him up on Wikipedia: "Leonhard Sohncke (22 February 1842 Halle – 1 November 1897 München) was a German mathematician who classified the 65 chiral space groups, sometimes called Sohncke groups." The German Wikipedia entry is much more complete. Also, I guess inspired by this thread, "anonymous" created an entry in Wikipedia "L.A. Sonke" - about 3h ago...
