Assembling achiral molecules typically generates achiral domains. However, odd things can happen when the molecules are banana-or boomerang-shaped—their cores can twist out of plain to form left- or right-handed helices, which can then pack into chiral domains that will polarize light (see the Perspective by Amabilino ). Hough et al. (p. [452][1]) show that if you make the situation even more complex by frustrating the packing of adjacent layers, you can create a material that appears to be macroscopically isotropic with only very local positional and orientational ordering of the molecules but still shows an overall chirality. In a second paper, Hough et al. (p. [456][2]) also show that if you change the chemistry of the molecules to allow for better overall packing, you can create a situation where helical filaments form that also tend to pack in layered structures. However, the frustration between the two types of packing leads to macroscopically chiral and mesoporous structures. [1]: /lookup/volpage/325/452 [2]: /lookup/volpage/325/456