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It is now 60 years since it was discovered that Thalidomide, a drug that was prescribed to alleviate the effects of morning sickness during pregnancy, also led to tragic side effects to the unborn baby such as malformation of the limbs.

The reason for this is due to a property that can be present in molecules called chirality. It is best explained by considering your right hand and your left hand - although they look very similar, they are different because one is a mirror image of the other. In the case of Thalidomide, one version of the molecule did have the desired effects but it was the other mirror image that led to the tragic side effects and in the 1950s and 1960s, this was not as well understood as it is now.

Year 13 Chemistry students have just been learning about this property and were asked to research it as a case study and write it up in the form of a newspaper article. You can see some of the work here in this picture.