An explanation of magnetism based on knowledge that the universe knows its right from its left — it is not symmetrical, as the ancient Greeks had people believing for a long time. This "handedness" is the concept of chirality.

Opposites are built into the universe. Yin and yang — one of the earliest concepts of opposites — relate to an early understaninding of chemistry and the function of DNA.

The universe is left-handed. In Chinese science the left hand is yang. All amino acids (what life is built from) are left-handed. Horgan. The Sinister Cosmos (May 1997). Scientific American.

Because the universe is "left-handed" so is Earth. The magnetic field of the planet has a left (yang, positive) and a right (yin, negative). The positive pole (yang) of the Earth's magnetic field is at what we call the "South Pole" (the south geographic pole). The negative pole (yin) is at what we call the "North Pole" (north geographic pole).

Chinese scientists discovered the nonconservation of parity because Chinese science has always focused on the south as the beneficent direction — that's why feng shui compasses have "south-pointing needles." North is the land of the dead.

Eurowest cultures have generally assumed north as the beneficent direction; that is why the compass needle "points north" for them. For example, Robert Fludd insisted that people sleep in a "boreal" position (with their head pointing to the north pole) to align themselves for health and to keep the demons away. (No kidding.)

The magnetic pole in the geographic north is called the Earth's "North Magnetic Pole" merely as a convention.