a racemate of giant lollies

This blog needs an infusion of colour, so I took a snap of the sweets on display at Mr. Simm's Olde Sweet Shoppe on the high street:



Scientists may enjoy spotting the chirality of the helical lollies in the back row - there are actually a few right-handed helices among a majority of left-handed ones. Which is kind of surprising as one would expect that the machine that makes these things would always turn in the same direction.