1. Skepticism over the atomic theory of matter by reputable scientists existed into the twentieth century, i.e., until the conclusive experiments in 1908–1909 on Brownian motion by Jean Perrin based on the theoretical predictions of Einstein (1905–1906). See, for example, G.L. Trigg, Crucial Experiments in Modern Physics (Crane, Russak, New York, 1975), Chapter 4.
2. Optically active substances can also be constructed from mirror-inequivalent arrangements of achiral molecules. Crystalline quartz is one such example; repeating units of silicon dioxide wind in helical fashion (with left or right circulations) about the optic axis. Unlike substances composed of intrinsically chiral molecules, however, the chirality, and therefore the optical activity, vanish when these “enantiomorphic” forms are melted or dissolved in solution. Thus, fused quartz exhibits no optical activity.
3. Thorough discussions of the problem of biomolecular homochirality may be found in Origins of Optical Activity in Nature edited by D.C. Walker (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1979), and in the special issue of Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology of Biosystems 20, No. 1 (1987).
4. It is a common error to think that the electric vector of circularly polarized light traces out a circle in time. Since the light wave is advancing as the electric vector is rotating, the actual locus of points traced out would resemble something like a twisted ribbon.
5. M.P. Silverman, Reflection and Refraction at the Surface of a Chiral Medium: Comparison of Gyrotropic Constitutive Relations Invariant or Noninvariant under a Duality Transformation,J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A
3, 830 (1986).