Chemical stereodynamics: retrospect and prospect

Thematic aspects of chemical stereodynamics are discussed that offer much scope for further development. Particularly emphasized are opportunities to exploit angular correlations to recover information usually presumed to be inaccessible; means to hybridize rotational angular momentum and thereby create spatially oriented or aligned pendular states in which molecular axes are confined to oscillate about the direction of an external field; the major role of atomic electronegativity differences in producing steric preferences in reactivity, by affecting the location of nodes and asymmetric composition in molecular orbitals; and some newly recognized stereodynamic aspects of DNA replication.