Until recently, even explaining the difference between “right” and “left” to a conventional alien would have been problematic - these familiar concepts seemed so “earthly”. But even without such abstract problems, there are enough questions. Why are most people right-handed? Do left-handers really behave differently than right-handers? How are dominant hands related to certain speech disorders such as stuttering? Why is the heart almost always on the left side of the body, and the human body is made up of left-handed amino acids? Why are the two hemispheres of the brain so different? Why do tornadoes rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere? Why does one third of the world drive on the left and two thirds on the right? Why does European writing go from left to right, while Arabic and Hebrew go from right to left? Science has already found answers to some questions, but it is still fascinatingly struggling with some paradoxes of asymmetry in nature, body and culture. With examples ranging from particle physics to the human body and from culture and sports to everyday life, this book will dispel your misconceptions about left and right and reveal the mysteries of asymmetry. Royal Society of London Prize for Non-Fiction Book of the Year.