Chemistry Nobel to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for the mirror-molecule puzzle
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan of France and Kenso Soai of Japan for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. Many molecules come in mirror-image forms, and life uses only one. Kagan showed in 1986 that a catalyst's purity and a product's purity need not move in step. Soai designed a reaction in which the product catalyses its own formation so a tiny imbalance grows towards one hand. The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor. ABC called it a duo awarded for a spectacular chemical reaction.
It bears on why life on Earth is one-handed and on how drugmakers produce only the useful form of a molecule.
No change today. The prize rewards decades-old chemistry.
The sentence to keep is that a small imbalance can amplify itself.
DailyDrop Australia edition No. 3 · Morning · WED., OCT. 7, 2026