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The concept of Eshelby untwisting, the effect of an axial screw dislocation driving an intrinsically twisted nanocrystal towards a straighter configuration more consistent with long–range translational symmetry, is introduced here. Force-field simulations of nanorods built from the enantiomorphous (space groups, P 3 1 21 and P 3 2 21) crystal structures of benzil (C 6 H 5 –C(O)–C(O)–C 6 H 5 ) were previously shown to twist in opposite directions, even in the absence of dislocations. Here, both right- and left-handed screw dislocations were introduced into benzil nanorods in silico . For rods built from the P 3 2 21 enantiomorph, dislocations with negative Burgers vectors increased the right-handed twisting already present in the intrinsically twisted structures without dislocations, whereas dislocations with positive Burgers vectors drove the twisted structure back towards a straight configuration, untwisting. In the dynamic simulations, the P 3 2 21 helicoid endowed with a positive Burgers vector ultimately twisted back through the straight configuration, until a helicoid of opposite sense from that of the starting structure, was obtained. The bearing of these observations on the propensity of small crystals to adopt non-polyhedral morphologies is discussed.