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🌀 Circular Dichroism: Reading Molecular Handedness with Light

Explore how chiral molecules absorb left- and right-circularly-polarized light differently, and how this subtle effect lets scientists determine protein secondary structure without crystallization.

Chemistry & Materials3DModerate60 FPS

The simulator shows how a chiral chromophore's asymmetric electron distribution produces unequal absorption of left- and right-circularly-polarized light, and how the resulting wavelength-dependent differential signal builds into a circular dichroism spectrum. It also demonstrates how blending reference spectra for alpha helix, beta sheet, and random coil in different proportions reproduces the far-ultraviolet spectra actually observed for real proteins.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Choose a chiral chromophore model and adjust its asymmetry parameter to see how the rotational strength, and therefore the circular dichroism signal, changes in real time. Switch between left- and right-circularly-polarized incident light to compare the two absorption traces directly. In the protein module, use the sliders to set the fractional content of alpha helix, beta sheet, and random coil, and watch the combined spectrum update instantly, then compare it against preset spectra from well-characterized reference proteins.

💡 Did You Know?

Did you know that the thalidomide tragedy of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in which one enantiomer of a drug was a safe sedative while its mirror image caused severe birth defects, is one of the key historical events that led regulators to require rigorous chirality quality-control, of the kind circular dichroism now routinely provides, for essentially all chiral pharmaceutical compounds.

⚙ Under the hood

Explore how chiral molecules absorb left- and right-circularly-polarized light differently, and how this subtle effect lets scientists determine protein secondary structure without crystallization.

chiralityspectroscopypolarized lightprotein structurebiophysicsoptical activitystructural biology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install